Why mistakes are a good thing
Making mistakes is inevitable and universal. You have made them, you will make more of them, and so has everyone else. They come with the package of being human, and try as we might, we cannot avoid all of them. So why then, are we so afraid to admit when we make them?
The answer is in our DNA.
As human beings we are hardwired to be afraid of mistakes and avoid them at all costs... Even when it’s to our own detriment. It makes perfect sense when you think about it in terms of basic survival. For the 200,000 years humans have been on the earth, reliable food has only been around for the last few hundred. So we have a lot longer history as a species of spending most of our time and energy finding the next meal that we have going to the grocery store to stock up. Back when we only ate what we hunted or foraged, mistakes had deadly consequences. Eat the wrong berry, and your dead. Fail to kill the bear quickly, and instead of having dinner, you are dinner. Back then, there was little room for error, and those that made mistakes simply didn’t live long enough to reproduce. It’s no wonder then, that we instinctively avoid admitting to mistakes, and become deeply ashamed of any error we may make.
The reality is everyone makes mistakes. You may not know about the mistakes your neighbor has made, but you can be sure they have made them… just like you have. Today’s reality is one where mistakes are actually priceless opportunities… once we learn to overcome our genetic aversion to them that is.
Every mistake that is made reveals a vulnerability or breakdown in a process. When we hide, sugarcoat, or minimize them we lose the opportunity to find and fix the problem that caused them. And when we vilify the individual that made the mistake, and spend valuable energy assigning blame, we only serve to push the problem underground further. In the end, by creating a culture where mistakes are deemed unacceptable, despite our intentions, what we really do is guarantee that the same ones will be made over and over.
The good people at Toyota are some of the few people who have discovered how to harvest the value in mistakes. At Toyota, it is encouraged, and even celebrated when a mistake is brought to management. Especially, when the person who made the mistake is the one who brought it. The person who made the mistake is considered a key player in the problem solving process, since they tend to know more about how the error materialized than anyone. Makes sense right?
When I first learned about the “Toyota Way”, I was skeptical. I thought, “If we celebrate mistakes, won’t that encourage more of them, and even intentional ones?” Surprisingly (to me at least) it doesn’t! It turns out that our instinctual aversion to errors is so strong, that even being rewarded for pointing out our own isn’t enough to stop us from avoiding making them. Besides, once you start to analyze mistakes, it’s pretty darn easy to spot the honestly made ones.
It’s one thing to know that as a leader you have to fight against the instinct to want to punish mistake; it’s something else entirely to get that message across to the rest of your team. It’s not enough to just say that you actually want people to tell you about their errors. You have to take it several steps further. You have to show that you mean it. That starts with admitting you make mistakes too. Trust me, this does NOT make you look weak. Actually, the opposite is true. It’s easier to respect someone who is brave enough to admit to the world they too are human and expect that everyone around them is as well.
Your team needs to know you will back them up if things go wrong. That means you NEVER throw someone under the bus. It means you defend the honor in coming forward with a mistake, and although you will be tempted to, you don’t play the blame game. You look past all that, roll up your sleeves, and focus on finding the solution.
This is all easy to say, but when the rubber hits the road, it is much harder to follow through with. It’s why leadership isn’t for everyone. You have to have the intestinal fortitude to stand by your teammates, and sometimes take the hit when you weren’t the one to directly cause the problem. The cost may feel heavy in the moment, but in time, you will be rewarded handsomely with loyalty, respect, and in the end, results.
