When did “trial and error” in the business universe turn into “do impeccably or fail”? Many might recall the words of Yoda, “Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try,” but when did this proclamation from a fictional film become management doctrine?

One of companies’ most familiar issues is that businesses and their employees alike are not avant-garde enough. Why? Some sources propose that the fundamental reason laborers and companies fail to innovate is that they dread failure. At face value, this makes some sense. Businesses are process-oriented establishments, and aiming for agreement can lead to an outcome that motivates few yet slights none. This does not have to happen; experiential learning courses can assist both workers and companies decide to accept “less than perfect” and thereby encourage innovation.

For example, volunteer leaders are temporary supervisors of a particular plan (i.e., a committee chair) or an organization (i.e., a board member), and they fear becoming the individuals that really ruin matters on their own watch; therefore, they tend to be more conservative in their decision-making. But since when is only a 100% perfect outcome considered success? Someone writes, “The idea to endorse the new annual meeting design passes with the realization that if even one participant brings up one concern, the event will be a failure and we will regress rapidly to what we were doing earlier, apologize extensively to membership, and never make such a mistake again.” Yet, somehow it appears that there exists an undercurrent (who knows how convincing) that falling short, being less than perfect, making mistakes, and conducting events that do not go as planned are failures.

Courses in experiential learning and disciplined experimentation can turn these improper assumptions around. Such classes demonstrate that innovation is not a pass-fail course and that Yoda had it incorrect. When it comes to innovation, there is solely “try.” Try frequently. Listen, revise, and try again. As Jim Collins notes in Good to Great, “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.”

Decide to be great, then engage in the disciplined experimentation that motivates firms toward that end, incrementally and exponentially. To believe we must do something and have it go exactly as planned is to guarantee little innovation.