Coaches train athletes to develop a short memory for mistakes so that they can move on to the next play and succeed. Similarly, business leaders are frequently advised to fail fast, and move on. In both cases, the idea is to refocus and start again, all while under ongoing, tremendous pressure — yet still produce results at a high level.
No great accomplishment in technology has come without a few false starts. The IT pros we talked with advise learning from mistakes and refactoring in real time, while managing risks to avoid outcomes that are hard to recover from.
