Developing a Culture That Encourages Mistakes
By: Varun Joshi
Tags: Management, Personal Growth, Life Lessons, Leadership, Personal Development

Ever since we were a kid, we’ve been terrified of making mistakes. Mistakes have always been a source of embarrassment & judgment from people around you, your friends, family & colleagues at the workplace.

To err is human, yet we still expect everyone around us to make no mistakes.

Consider the following inventions that were actually invented by mistakes:

Chocolate-chip cookies: Yes, our favourite cookie-treat was in fact, a mistake. While mixing a batch of cookies, Ruth Wakefield discovered she was out of baker’s chocolate. As a substitute, she broke sweetened chocolate into small pieces and added them to the cookie dough. She expected the chocolate to melt, making chocolate cookies, but the little bits stuck. Potato Chips: According to popular legend, the potato chip was invented when a picky customer repeatedly sent back an order of french fries, complaining that they were too thick. Frustrated with the customer’s demands, George Crum sought revenge by slicing a batch of potatoes paper-thin, frying them to a crisp, and seasoning them with lots of salt. Surprisingly, the customer loved them. Thank God for demanding customers, eh? No? Okay. LSD: Albert Hoffman, a chemist was researching lysergic acid derivatives in a laboratory in Switzerland. He swallowed a small amount of LSD while researching its properties and had the first acid trip in history. Doing drugs is harmful & highly discouraged, but that must have been wild! 😆 X-Rays: Wilhelm Roentgen, a physicist, was interested in investigating the properties of cathodic ray tubes. When shining light through the tubes he noted fluorescent papers in his lab were illuminated even though his machine had an opaque cover. Just think about how much X-Rays mean in the medical industry!

Now, I agree every mistake will not be as ground-breaking as the ones listed above. But that does not mean making mistakes should not be encouraged.

As a kid, I used to make a lot of mistakes, I wasn’t clumsy but I have had my share of broken stuff around the house & bad judgment calls that are memory areas I do not wish to dive into. But, when I made mistakes as a kid, my parents & my elder brother would not reprimand me for it, they would support & guide me through what I did wrong.

A team is like a house. If a bulb burns out in your house, you don’t go out and buy a new house, you fix the damn bulb! 💡

I believe, most people can be trained or coached towards a certain goal, provided the right tools and enough time.

If you expect someone to progress in their team, in their job, expect them to make mistakes especially in the early stages. Mistakes are humankind’s way of discovering new stuff. If the early humans knew what they were doing, we’d be doomed & we would probably not have X-Rays, Penicillin, Pacemakers, or Chocolate Chip Cookies!

So what should you do if one of your team members (or you) make a mistake?

Everybody is a good manager or a leader until they or someone they work with messes up. True potential as a leader or manager lies within how you respond to the event and take charge of fixing it.

If you’re not a manager:

The first step towards effective problem solving is taking responsibility.

Okay, so you deleted the table on production which is usually a code red situation 🔴 . I strongly advise you to stop beating around the bush & avoid the confrontation and go up to your manager and tell them what happened. If you don’t, eventually someone is going to figure out what happened.

Not admitting to your mistakes reduces the trust within the team.

The next step is to do what you can to help fix the problem. Often, our mistakes have a larger impact and someone with more experience has to step in to fix it. Your prime goal is to provide every little bit of information about what & how everything went down.

Don’t go on a coffee break while someone else sits through and fixes the problem you created. It’s just not cool.

If you’re wondering why I’m fixated on deleting production tables, it’s because I did it in one of my past jobs, but that is a story for another time. I remember being embarrassed, worried about how much of an idiot I was for not paying enough attention. This is the obvious reaction to making a mistake, you feel embarrassed, fear & frustration. But it is important to forgive yourself, learn from the mistake & move on with your work.

Oh, prepare yourself to hear about it for months or even years to come where this story will come up and be a source of entertainment for your team, at your expense!

If you’re a manager/team lead:

The difference between a good manager & a great manager is how you handle mistakes within your team.

The way you handle mistakes in your team are the defining moments of your leadership skill.

Your entire team will be watching you & this will affect their relationship with you and the level of trust they hold for you, so it’s important to get it right.

The first thing to remember is staying calm. This is important since if you panic, everyone around you panics. Try not to fall into a pit of chaos. Speak with the team member responsible for the mistake, tell them it’s okay that something went wrong and share your knowledge & expertise on how to go about fixing the problem.

Consider the track record of the said team member. Is there a pattern of making mistakes? Has the team member been advised regarding similar behaviour in the past? About 90% of people can learn from their mistakes and not commit the same again. But if you see a pattern, they may be in the 10% that just do not learn. As a manager, your next steps are well-known.

Don’t wait for problems to build up. As a manager, you need to provide regular feedback around the job performance & the professional attitude of a team member. It is much more effective when feedback is given in smaller chunks on a regular basis rather than taking 2-hour feedback meetings piling on about how someone could have done better.

Recognition within the team should occur regularly, too.

We often feel, ‘The only time I hear from my manager is when I’ve done something wrong. What about all the times I did something right?’ It is important for managers to show balance in the way they communicate with their team.

Move on. Successful people keep going, they make mistakes but don’t quit. Learn to use failure as a stepping stone away from the past. Don’t forget your mistake, but don’t dwell on it or let it get you down!

When you handle mistakes the right way, it encourages an open culture where team members are not afraid to admit to their mistakes & it opens the pathways to innovation. When fixing a mistake, you often realize how it could have been avoided.

When you’re a manager that accepts and understands that mistakes happen, your team will trust you & stick by you no matter what.

Like everyone else, you’re bound to make mistakes.

Handle them well, and you’re on your way to be a better person and a great leader!