Be Fearless Principles
Pursue bold change, experiment early, and turn failure into learning
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 97%
The Be Fearless Principles provide a repeatable approach to breakthrough innovation. Begin by replacing incremental ambitions with a consequential goal, then run early experiments that expose assumptions before large commitments are made. Risk is treated as necessary research and development rather than something to eliminate. When an attempt fails, the team records what happened, extracts lessons, and shares them so that the failure improves future decisions. The approach also calls for reaching beyond familiar networks and bringing missing voices into the work, because diverse collaborators contribute different capabilities and problem perspectives. The mechanism converts bold intent into evidence-producing action while preventing unsuccessful experiments from becoming wasted effort.
Origin
Extracted from Masters in Business. Jean Case described principles developed and taught through the Case Foundation's Be Fearless work on innovation and breakthrough transformation.
Core principles
- 01Aim for transformational rather than incremental change
- 02Treat experimentation as necessary research and development
- 03Accept risk as the price of pursuing meaningful breakthroughs
- 04Convert failures into lessons that improve the next attempt
- 05Seek perspectives and partners outside your usual circle
How to run it
- 1
Make a big bet
Choose a meaningful outcome that would create transformational rather than merely incremental change. Define what success would make possible and assemble the resources needed to pursue it.
Pro tip Frame the ambition as a concrete change in the world rather than an internal activity target.
Watch out A dramatic slogan without a defined outcome is not a genuine big bet.
- 2
Experiment early and often
Test the riskiest assumptions through bounded experiments before committing the full organization. Use each test to generate evidence about what should be continued, changed, or stopped.
Pro tip Treat the experimental budget as research and development rather than discretionary waste.
Watch out Risk-taking does not excuse reckless experiments with irreversible consequences.
- 3
Make failure matter
Analyze unsuccessful attempts, identify transferable lessons, and use those lessons to improve the next decision. Publish failures alongside successes when doing so can help others avoid the same mistakes.
Pro tip Maintain a failure resume or recurring review of what went wrong and what changed afterward.
Watch out Celebrating failure without extracting or applying a lesson turns it into waste.
- 4
Reach beyond your bubble
Identify stakeholders, sectors, and lived experiences absent from the current group. Bring those voices into the work before choosing or scaling a solution.
Pro tip Ask explicitly who is not at the table and what knowledge is therefore missing.
Watch out Inviting diverse participants after the key decisions have already been made is tokenism, not collaboration.
In the wild
After a high-profile Case Foundation clean-water initiative failed and a year of course correction did not rescue it, Case publicly documented what had gone wrong in a post titled “The Painful Acknowledgement of Coming up Short.” The disclosure prompted other nonprofit and philanthropic leaders to discuss their own failures and helped open a broader learning dialogue.
→ A failed initiative became a shared lesson and helped normalize transparent discussion of failure in philanthropy.
A city team with an ambitious homelessness goal pilots three small service-delivery models in different neighborhoods. It includes residents, nonprofits, employers, and public agencies in the design, measures each pilot, publishes the unsuccessful results, and scales only the model supported by evidence.
→ The city learns cheaply, avoids premature expansion, and develops a stronger cross-sector solution.
Common mistakes
Confusing boldness with recklessness
A big bet still needs bounded experiments, evidence, and safeguards. Taking uncontrolled risks is not the same as testing a bold idea.
Hiding unsuccessful results
Concealing failures prevents both the team and outside practitioners from learning what should change.
Repeating failure without adaptation
Failure matters only when its lessons alter assumptions, decisions, or subsequent experiments.
Is it for you?
Best for
Leaders, entrepreneurs, and mission-driven teams pursuing uncertain but potentially transformational outcomes.
Not ideal for
Situations requiring strict procedural compliance or where even a small experiment could cause irreversible harm.
From the transcript
“The first is make big bets and make history and the ideas. Don't accept incremental change.”
“The second principle is experiment early and often take risks. Be bold.”
“So that's our third principle, which is make failure matter.”
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