What Nonprofits Should Remember about Innovation and Failure

Along with the Ford Edsel, Colgate’s beef lasagna frozen TV dinner, Sony’s Betamax, and Harley-Davidson’s “Hot Road” cologne, more than 70 innovation failures are showcased at the Museum of Failure in downtown Helsingborg, Sweden. Trump: The Game, modeled after the board game Monopoly, is also there. Here, here and here are videos that take you inside the museum.
Dr. Samuel West developed the idea for the museum while studying for a PhD in Organizational Psychology at Lund University (his dissertation was on Playing at Work). West is the CEO and co-founder of SuperLab, and he curates the Museum of Failure. West asserts that playfulness, being allowed to fail, is an important element of success.The exhibition is presented in Swedish and English. Like the one-day FailCon conferences, West shows that mistakes are a necessary risk on the road to innovation. The museum is currently on tour and is scheduled to be in New York City sometime in September.