Yesterday Google announced it will discontinue Google Wave at the end of the year. Wow, somebody must be in trouble for such a failure right? Wrong.

Google is not afraid to take risks. “Our policy is we try things,” the Google CEO [Eric Schmidt] said, hours after the company announced it was halting development of the complex real-time communication tool. “We celebrate our failures. This is a company where it is absolutely OK to try something that is very hard, have it not be successful, take the learning and apply it to something new.” (CNET)

This is part of Google’s culture. Try things, fail or succeed, learn and move forward. Sometimes the biggest failure is the foundation for future success. This is important. Especially in online marketing. If you don’t keep innovating, tinkering and trying new things, you’re not moving forward.

How pro-active and innovative is somebody allowed to be in your company or team? What happens when somebody tries something new and it doesn’t work? Punishment or reward?

Encouraging people to be innovative, and taking risks by giving them enough space and authority is crucial. Amazon.com even has an award for trying something innovative without asking for permission.