《財富》500強內部網絡是一個在線社區，在這里，《財富》500強企業的頂級高官會與全球的讀者分享想法，提供關于領導力的建議。今天的問題是：怎樣知道在何時放棄一個失敗的項目？回答者是Conduent HR Services的人力資源咨詢主管迪恩·阿洛伊斯。

由于其負面的含義，“失敗”這個詞得到了不公的評價。它指的是某事沒有按照計劃的方式進行。不過許多人都忘了，失敗是成功之母。每次失敗的嘗試都會讓人得到新的教訓，并應用到之后的實踐中。所以我鼓勵每個人都去失敗幾次——要失敗的話，就盡早失敗，經常失敗。

當你處理復雜任務時，可能很難知道什么時候應該繼續。以下是一些建議，幫助你判斷何時應當放棄失敗的項目：

三振出局

如果你在做一個項目，但是它的進展與預計不同，我建議你在三次失敗之后就放棄它。每次嘗試失敗后，你都要總結經驗教訓，應用到下一次嘗試中——并確保自己使用了新穎和創新的方法。在大型機構中，這一點可能很難做到，因為新奇和冒險的計劃容易受到官僚作風的阻礙。不過，這些復雜的機構之所以能夠獲得全公司的成功，正是由于它們的領導者強大勇敢、愿意發聲，甘冒個人危險，也從不害怕失敗。

我把這種觀念應用到了自己的整個職業生涯。放棄一些自己重視的事情可能會感覺很不自在，但是從大局著眼能幫我意識到，整個公司的成功比一個小項目的失敗更加重要。

不斷重新評估

在專業服務或咨詢領域，擁有合適的高層人才是公司成功的必備條件，也是發展公司并不斷招募其他頂尖人才的關鍵。然而，這件事情本身也具有風險，因為能改變局勢的高級人才往往需要很高的薪酬。你一定不希望所托非人，因為他們的薪水和其他相關費用讓你無法擺脫，卻不會給你帶來回報。

為了避免這樣的情況，要給新員工設立明確的期望。如果前六個月的局勢脫離了預期，要主動介入，表明彼此可能不夠合適。確保你有合適的績效管理流程。如果事情沒有迅速進入正軌，就解約并尋找新的人選。在這方面失敗很正常，只要你早早發現錯誤，并迅速嘗試新的候選人。

我還把這種理念應用到了創新產品的開發中。能夠流行起來并取得長期成功的想法或概念只是很小的一部分。所以，當我們試圖在業內的新興領域尋找新的收入來源時，應當在我們的客戶或整體市場透露出感興趣的內容之初就予以關注。如果我們在四處奔走宣傳新產品的六個月內，都沒有收獲穩定的買家，就該把它封存，試試其他想法了。

我可以回想起10種過去幾年中我的團隊構思、打造并向潛在顧客展現的新產品。其中有兩種推銷得很成功，為我們贏得了新的客戶，建立了收入來源。在我看來，20%的成功率相當不錯。如果我們不愿意去承擔其他八次嘗試的失敗，也就絕對沒有機會找到那兩次成功的方案。（財富中文網）

譯者：嚴匡正

The Fortune 500 Insiders Network is an online community where top executives from the Fortune 500 share ideas and offer leadership advice with Fortune’s global audience. Today’s answer to the question, “How do you know when to give up on a failing project?” is written by Dean Aloise, global HR consulting leader at Conduent HR Services.

The word “fail” has earned a bad rap because of its negative connotation; it implies that something didn’t work out the way it was planned. But what many people forget is that success is often achieved through failure. With every failed attempt, a new lesson can be learned and applied. So I encourage everyone to fail sometimes—and when you do, do it early and do it often.

When you’re dealing with a complex task, it can be difficult to know when to move on. Here is some advice on how to know when it’s time to jump ship on a failing project:

Three strikes and you’re out

If you’re working on a project and it’s not turning out as expected, I suggest failing three times before giving up on it. For every missed attempt, apply your lessons learned to the next try—and make sure you are using new and innovative techniques. This can be a hard practice to follow in a large organization, since attempts to try new and risky ideas tend to get clogged up in bureaucracy. It's precisely these complex organizations that achieve company-wide success through strong, gutsy leaders that make noise, put themselves at personal risk, and are not afraid to fail.

I’ve applied this thinking throughout my entire career. It can feel unnatural to give up on something I care about, but looking at the bigger picture helps me realize that my company’s success is more important than a pet project that isn’t working out.

Reevaluate constantly

In a professional services or consulting environment, having the right senior-level talent is necessary to run a successful business—and the key to growing that business is to keep hiring additional top talent. However, this can be a risky venture in itself, since senior level game-changers usually come with very high price tags. If you hire the wrong person, you don’t want to be stuck with the cost of their salary and other related expenses, which will never pay off.

To avoid such a situation, set clear expectations up front with the new hire, and if things are going off the rails in the first six months, proactively intervene and explain that this might not be a good fit. Make sure you go through proper performance management processes. If things don’t shape up quickly, cut ties and move on. This is an area in which it’s okay to fail, as long as you own up to it early and try again with a new candidate soon afterward.

I’ve also applied this thinking to innovative product offerings. Only a small percentage of new ideas or concepts are going to catch on and be successful in the long run. So when we’ve tried to capture new revenue streams in emerging areas in our industry, we pay attention to early signs of interest from our clients and the market in general. If we don’t see a pipeline of buyers within the first six months of pounding the pavement to get the word out about the new offering, we put it on the shelf and pivot to something different.

I can think of 10 new offerings my team dreamed up, built, and showed to potential buyers in the last few years. Two of those offerings are selling successfully, winning us new clients and building revenue streams. Twenty percent is a decent success rate in my book; if we weren’t willing to fail on the other eight attempts, we never would have found two solutions that worked.