I'm not afraid of failure, I just don't want to talk about it, ok?

I have been following with some interest the groundswell of warm public opinion for the efforts of AdmittingFailure.com, a no-holds barred approach to transparency and accountability conceived by Engineers Without Borders Canada. The principle is very simple; let's all learn from each others mistakes and, I suppose, conversely, let's not pretend everything is going well, regardless of the enormous pressure to qualify success to funders and advocates.

I applaud the principles of AdmittingFailure, even if I suspect it will gain only limited traction (a lot of the entries submitted thus far are very historic, some as much as 15 years ago, so reputational risk is mitigated). Indeed, the 'celebration' of failure was a founding principle of Because it's Good, something we felt was just as critical as the sometimes tenuous metrics of success.

Throughout my time working in and with the charity sector, this has always been the issue which has rankled me most. I have been privy to some pretty extraordinary failings which have been explained in the usual ambiguous language of 'learnings'. An old acquaintance of mine told me the other day about a banner ad campaign that was run by the marketing department of a major national charity which was £25,000 at cost and saw a return of about £200. Not exactly the sort of ROI that you want to put in your annual report. However, the salient point was that they learnt nothing from the experience - how helpful would it have been to share the failure (if not the exact numbers perhaps) with peers across the sector to find out why banner advertising was never the correct medium for that campaign and audience.

As a potential donor, I'm already much more inclined to give to Engineers Without Borders as I instinctively trust them to be accountable. The failings they've highlighted are rational and contextualised - international development is a highly complex landscape of partnerships, local constraints and other variables; ultimately it's not finger-pointing but recognising shortcomings, be they individual or collective.

Digital is no different; it too is a multi-layered and constantly evolving space where partnership, collaboration and crucially, experimentation are key. When you try and innovate in unchartered territories the potential to fail is much higher, and indeed the need to share that experience equally important.

The risk averse mentality that still permeates much of the sector stifles innovation and growth - let's try; if we fail, we share, we learn, we go again and get it right.

I'd be really interested if Because members had any experiences they wanted to share, anonymously or otherwise, with the rest of the community. If you do, please comment on this article or tweet us @becauseitsgood.