What is a mistake?
Is it a blunder?
Misinterpretation?
Oversight?
A momentary lapse in judgement?
It’s perhaps all of those; but one avenue often overlooked is that a mistake has value.
A mistake, however you define it, has tuition value.
And to be blunt, organizations that sweep mistakes under the proverbial rug, without using them as an opportunity for learning, undermine in entirety their tuition value.
However a mistake occurs, whomever is to blame and whatever negative consequence it resulted in is immaterial.
What is key for any organization is what we learned from the mistake such that the individual, the team and the organization benefit thereafter.
One doesn’t (necessarily) teach mistakes but once they occur, the tuition value can kick in if steps are taken to insert the opportunity into the learning cycle.
Whether a “sin of commission or sin of omission” (Nicklin and Williams, The Journal of Psychology, 2009, 143(5), 533–558), mistakes need to become part of a transparent learning cycle in any organization. One of the four key traits of a team is being an educator and as such, the team (or organization) must recognize the sin as an active ingredient to both the success of the team (organization) as well as the Collaboration Cycle itself.
There is value in a mistake.
There is, perhaps, a hidden tuition value in the mistake.
We don’t think to spend money on courses, facilitators and ‘experts’ focusing specifically on our mistakes … but there they lie, on a daily basis throughout a team and an organization, somewhat inchoate, yet we let them decay for fear of reprisal or our manager becoming apoplectic.
What can we do to gain value from this dormant tuition?
Mistakes happen. Embrace them.
Devise and embed ‘evaluation’ processes into individual and team projects.
Develop open collaborative communities (online and face-to-face) that provide a mechanism to share mistakes.
Openly share the tuition value of mistakes; when we learn from a mistake and course-correct to benefit a future action, how does that manifest in hour savings, cost savings or other factors and criteria? Publish it.
There is tuition value in a mistake.
Don’t make the mistake of mistaking mistakes as inconsequential.
Remember, you can’t spell mistake without ensuring you put a stake in it.
WORK-LIFE BLOOM
PERSONAL ASSESSMENT
Find out if you’re currently blooming, budding, stunted or in need of renewal through the Work-Life Bloom Personal Assessment.
We are so proud to have had you at our event. Your talk was a big hit. It moved us. We can’t thank you enough.
Malin Björnell, Salesforce
Dan challenged us to have clarity of purpose, both as individuals and as an organization. He related inspiring stories drawing on his experience in business, technology and academia. As he said, ‘There is no ownership without belonging.’
Christian Pantel, D2L
Fantastic engaging talk for our global partner summit. Thank you so much, Dan!
Barb Kinnard, CEO Response Biomedical Corp
Dan not only brought his presentation to life with his charisma, but also content, style and presentation finesse. Our members were especially interested in his thought provoking and top of mind topic on the future of work and how we’re going to be leading the next generation of leaders.
Cheryl Goodwin, CPA
Dan is a conference organizer’s ideal speaker. Not only did he inspire and energize our group, but he also masterfully adapted his content so it resonated with the audience and our conference theme. As a bonus, Dan is able to nimbly navigate to adjust to a reduced time slot when other speakers went over time without sacrificing the impact of his session.
Director and General Counsel
Dan accomplished what we set out to do, which was not only to be inspirational, but also to leave everyone with tools and food for thought / self-reflection to improve their personal and professional lives.
What is a mistake?
Is it a blunder?
Misinterpretation?
Oversight?
A momentary lapse in judgement?
It’s perhaps all of those; but one avenue often overlooked is that a mistake has value.
A mistake, however you define it, has tuition value.
And to be blunt, organizations that sweep mistakes under the proverbial rug, without using them as an opportunity for learning, undermine in entirety their tuition value.
However a mistake occurs, whomever is to blame and whatever negative consequence it resulted in is immaterial.
What is key for any organization is what we learned from the mistake such that the individual, the team and the organization benefit thereafter.
One doesn’t (necessarily) teach mistakes but once they occur, the tuition value can kick in if steps are taken to insert the opportunity into the learning cycle.
Whether a “sin of commission or sin of omission” (Nicklin and Williams, The Journal of Psychology, 2009, 143(5), 533–558), mistakes need to become part of a transparent learning cycle in any organization. One of the four key traits of a team is being an educator and as such, the team (or organization) must recognize the sin as an active ingredient to both the success of the team (organization) as well as the Collaboration Cycle itself.
There is value in a mistake.
There is, perhaps, a hidden tuition value in the mistake.
We don’t think to spend money on courses, facilitators and ‘experts’ focusing specifically on our mistakes … but there they lie, on a daily basis throughout a team and an organization, somewhat inchoate, yet we let them decay for fear of reprisal or our manager becoming apoplectic.
What can we do to gain value from this dormant tuition?
