Principles: Radical Learning From Mistakes

We are all human beings who make mistakes. There are no exceptions. Making a mistake is natural, and it’s necessary for our learning process. Learning from mistakes helps us to prevent errors from recurring and as long as this principle followed, embrace mistakes and learning from them.

Anyone should feel safe to communicate their errors; by doing so, they must not be impacted negatively in ANY way. If any leader pushes for learning from mistakes and in a meeting asking why someone else keeps on making mistakes, this leader is preventing people from sharing their mistakes. When you are trying to implement this principle, your actions should be where your words are. This principle is hard to follow for many people.

When we all see something that we don’t like, we tend to find who make a mistake and blame him. This behavior is not going hand in hand with this principle. Blaming others in public will NOT encourage a culture of learning from mistakes. On the flip side, when someone is sharing his mistakes, be empathetic and not critical or cynical. People need to feel safe to speak about their failure.

Don’t celebrate mistakes! Celebrate when someone learned from his mistake.

When someone shares his mistakes, listen carefully and find out how his mistake applies to you. We all need to learn from our own and other peoples’ mistakes without creating a blaming culture. Learning from errors is crucial for continuous improvement, so make sure you understand and embrace it!