by Dr. Cecil Clements (4th December 2012)
I don’t know how many of you make mistakes. You’re probably shaking your heads and saying, “I’m there most of the time,” and I would agree with you. We all make mistakes. Yet, sometimes we’re very harsh on ourselves.
I remember learning the piano a few years back. As I would play and make a mistake, I would stop and freeze. My piano instructor would look at me and say, “What’s going on? It’s just a mistake. Pick up and go.” But each time I would be so harsh on myself. She used to actually smile when I made the mistake because she found it so funny that I was taking it all so seriously. But I have a difficult time, as I know you all do as well, when I make my own mistakes.
I was reading this beautiful book by Ted Engstrom – ‘Proven Principles of Leadership’. There’s a chapter there that says ‘Mistakes are Important.’ I want to read a bit from that book.
“One of the greatest obstacles we face in attempting to reach our potential is the fear of making a mistake, the very human fear of failure. And yet excellence is based on failure, usually one failure after another.
The genius inventor Thomas Edison was one day faced by two dejected assistants, who told him, “We’ve just completed our seven hundredth experiment and we still don’t have an answer. We have failed.”
“No, my friends,” said Edison, “You haven’t failed. It’s just that we know more about this subject than anyone else alive. And we’re closer to finding the answer, because now we know seven hundred things not to do.” Edison went on to tell his colleagues, “Don’t call it a mistake. Call it an education.”
What a marvelous perspective. I don’t know how many additional tries it took before Edison achieved success, but we all know that eventually he and his colleagues did see the light. Literally.
Don’t call mistakes, mistakes. Call them learning experiences.
As we look around us, we notice that no one is immune. We find that all around, as we travel, people that we meet. Yet, when we look at ourselves, we tend to be mercilessly critical. We speak of ourselves as failures, instead of as having failed in that one task.
That’s so important in our understanding of failures, that when we make mistakes, we’re not failures but just in that particular area, in that task, we have failed. And failure must never be reason to give up. If Thomas Edison had given up that easily, someone said – Then I would be watching television in the dark!
Charles Kettering said, “You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.” He adds, “Psychologists say that action, any kind of action, is also a tremendous cure for depression, even if it’s no more than a walk around the block.”
Failure is never a reason to quit doing anything. In fact, it must spur us on to continue to persist in the things that we are doing.
I don’t know how many of you have watched the movie ‘Apollo 13’? In that movie, as they are trying to get the astronauts safely back to earth, Ed Harris, who plays Gene Kranz in the movie, uses these famous words: “Failure is not an option.” As you hear those famous words, you kind of buy into that whole philosophy.
Yet, as Robert Sutton, professor at Stanford University, said, “While it’s useful on occasion, for inspiring exceptional effort and resourcefulness, using that phrase sends a dangerously wrong signal. True, no one should choose the option of failure deliberately, but trying especially hard to avoid it means taking no chances on change. The better message to get across is that failure is a by-product of risk-taking, and honest mistakes will be forgiven.”
He then quotes from a book by Charles Bosk called ‘Forgive and Remember’; not forgive and forget, but forgive and remember. “It is best that while we forgive the person who has committed the mistake, we must remember it. We forgive because it is impossible to run an organization without making mistakes. Pointing fingers and holding grudges creates a climate of fear. We need to remember and talk about the mistake openly so people and the system can learn. We also need to remember so that you’ll notice if some people keep making the same mistakes even after being taught how to avoid them. In that case, they may need to be moved to another position.”
So, as you look at your team, the people around you, as you look at yourself as a boss, somebody in charge in an organization, how do you handle mistakes around you?
John Baldoni, writing an article in Harvard Business Review entitled ‘How Good Leaders Correct Mistakes’ says, “It’s very important to pick your moment. Flying off the handle when someone makes a mistake might be theatrical, but it’s not really practical. It may make the manager feel good to vent, but the effect on the employee may be counter-productive.”
He goes on to say how Carlos Gomez, who was a rookie centerfielder for the Minnesota Twins, scooped up the ball and threw it so hard to second base that the throw ended up being fielded in the dugout by Ron Gardenhire, his manager. So what did Gardenhire do when the rookie returned to the dugout? He asked him to autograph the ball. He later explained his action. “This kid plays with a lot of emotion. If I kick him there, I might lose him for the rest of the game. But instead Gomez knew what he had done wrong and the way I handled it didn’t affect him for the rest of the game.”
You need to pick your moments. You need to know how to handle mistakes around you. Baldoni goes on to say: three things are important here.
I don’t know how many of you make mistakes. You’re probably shaking your heads and saying, “I’m there most of the time,” and I would agree with you. We all make mistakes. Yet, sometimes we’re very harsh on ourselves.
I remember learning the piano a few years back. As I would play and make a mistake, I would stop and freeze. My piano instructor would look at me and say, “What’s going on? It’s just a mistake. Pick up and go.” But each time I would be so harsh on myself. She used to actually smile when I made the mistake because she found it so funny that I was taking it all so seriously. But I have a difficult time, as I know you all do as well, when I make my own mistakes.
I was reading this beautiful book by Ted Engstrom – ‘Proven Principles of Leadership’. There’s a chapter there that says ‘Mistakes are Important.’ I want to read a bit from that book.
“One of the greatest obstacles we face in attempting to reach our potential is the fear of making a mistake, the very human fear of failure. And yet excellence is based on failure, usually one failure after another.
The genius inventor Thomas Edison was one day faced by two dejected assistants, who told him, “We’ve just completed our seven hundredth experiment and we still don’t have an answer. We have failed.”
“No, my friends,” said Edison, “You haven’t failed. It’s just that we know more about this subject than anyone else alive. And we’re closer to finding the answer, because now we know seven hundred things not to do.” Edison went on to tell his colleagues, “Don’t call it a mistake. Call it an education.”
What a marvelous perspective. I don’t know how many additional tries it took before Edison achieved success, but we all know that eventually he and his colleagues did see the light. Literally.
Don’t call mistakes, mistakes. Call them learning experiences.
As we look around us, we notice that no one is immune. We find that all around, as we travel, people that we meet. Yet, when we look at ourselves, we tend to be mercilessly critical. We speak of ourselves as failures, instead of as having failed in that one task.
That’s so important in our understanding of failures, that when we make mistakes, we’re not failures but just in that particular area, in that task, we have failed. And failure must never be reason to give up. If Thomas Edison had given up that easily, someone said – Then I would be watching television in the dark!
Charles Kettering said, “You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.” He adds, “Psychologists say that action, any kind of action, is also a tremendous cure for depression, even if it’s no more than a walk around the block.”
Failure is never a reason to quit doing anything. In fact, it must spur us on to continue to persist in the things that we are doing.
I don’t know how many of you have watched the movie ‘Apollo 13’? In that movie, as they are trying to get the astronauts safely back to earth, Ed Harris, who plays Gene Kranz in the movie, uses these famous words: “Failure is not an option.” As you hear those famous words, you kind of buy into that whole philosophy.
Yet, as Robert Sutton, professor at Stanford University, said, “While it’s useful on occasion, for inspiring exceptional effort and resourcefulness, using that phrase sends a dangerously wrong signal. True, no one should choose the option of failure deliberately, but trying especially hard to avoid it means taking no chances on change. The better message to get across is that failure is a by-product of risk-taking, and honest mistakes will be forgiven.”
He then quotes from a book by Charles Bosk called ‘Forgive and Remember’; not forgive and forget, but forgive and remember. “It is best that while we forgive the person who has committed the mistake, we must remember it. We forgive because it is impossible to run an organization without making mistakes. Pointing fingers and holding grudges creates a climate of fear. We need to remember and talk about the mistake openly so people and the system can learn. We also need to remember so that you’ll notice if some people keep making the same mistakes even after being taught how to avoid them. In that case, they may need to be moved to another position.”
So, as you look at your team, the people around you, as you look at yourself as a boss, somebody in charge in an organization, how do you handle mistakes around you?
John Baldoni, writing an article in Harvard Business Review entitled ‘How Good Leaders Correct Mistakes’ says, “It’s very important to pick your moment. Flying off the handle when someone makes a mistake might be theatrical, but it’s not really practical. It may make the manager feel good to vent, but the effect on the employee may be counter-productive.”
He goes on to say how Carlos Gomez, who was a rookie centerfielder for the Minnesota Twins, scooped up the ball and threw it so hard to second base that the throw ended up being fielded in the dugout by Ron Gardenhire, his manager. So what did Gardenhire do when the rookie returned to the dugout? He asked him to autograph the ball. He later explained his action. “This kid plays with a lot of emotion. If I kick him there, I might lose him for the rest of the game. But instead Gomez knew what he had done wrong and the way I handled it didn’t affect him for the rest of the game.”
You need to pick your moments. You need to know how to handle mistakes around you. Baldoni goes on to say: three things are important here.
- Why did the mistake occur? New employees often make mistakes because they don’t know better; veterans make mistakes because they’re not paying attention. Neither is acceptable. Find out why the mistake occurred.
- How can the employee correct the mistake?
- How can you turn this mistake into a learning lesson?
I remember many years ago, hearing somebody talk about the Embraer Company in Brazil that makes the Embraer aircraft. Over the hangar was a big board that said, ‘To Err is Human, but to cover up is Sackable’.
Well, what if you’re the person who is making the mistakes? What are things that you can do to help you go through? I want to give you a couple of principles taken from Amy Gallo’s article, ‘You’ve Made A Mistake, Now What?’
Well, what if you’re the person who is making the mistakes? What are things that you can do to help you go through? I want to give you a couple of principles taken from Amy Gallo’s article, ‘You’ve Made A Mistake, Now What?’
- Accept responsibility for your role in the mistake.
- Show that you’ve learned and will behave differently going forward.
- Demonstrate that you can be trusted with equally important decisions in the future.
- Don’t be defensive or blame others.
- Don’t make mistakes that violate people’s trust. These are the toughest to recover from.
- Don’t stop experimenting or hold back because of a misstep.
As we look at mistakes that are made around us, mistakes that we make, I think the key is being able to have the wisdom to know not only how not to make mistakes, but if mistakes are made by us, how to handle it; if mistakes are made by others, how to handle them. I think the key ingredient here is wisdom.
So from our Holy Book I want to give you this one word of instruction: God says to us, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to everyone.
So my hope is that you will look to Him who gives wisdom generously to everyone and be able to know, through that wisdom, how to handle mistakes that you make and people make around you.
Let me pray with you. Almighty God, to each one of us present on this call, we ask for wisdom. God, we make mistakes all around us. We make the mistakes, we see mistakes happening. Sometimes we don’t handle them well. Give us wisdom today and in the days ahead to be able to handle mistakes well, to be able to not draw back but to be able to continue to take risks and be innovative and creative; not to let mistakes stall us or stymie us but to keep going. We thank You for the wisdom You will give us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
God Bless You All.
Resources
So from our Holy Book I want to give you this one word of instruction: God says to us, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to everyone.
So my hope is that you will look to Him who gives wisdom generously to everyone and be able to know, through that wisdom, how to handle mistakes that you make and people make around you.
Let me pray with you. Almighty God, to each one of us present on this call, we ask for wisdom. God, we make mistakes all around us. We make the mistakes, we see mistakes happening. Sometimes we don’t handle them well. Give us wisdom today and in the days ahead to be able to handle mistakes well, to be able to not draw back but to be able to continue to take risks and be innovative and creative; not to let mistakes stall us or stymie us but to keep going. We thank You for the wisdom You will give us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
God Bless You All.
Resources
- Ted W. Engstrom, "The Essential Engstrom: Proven Principles of Leadership," Timothy J. Beals, Editor, Authentic Publishing 2007.
- Robert I. Sutton, "Forgive and Remember: How a Good Boss Responds to Mistakes." HBR Blog Network, http://blogs.hbr.org/
sutton/2010/08/forgive_and_ remember_how_a_goo.html - Charles Bosk, "Forgive and Remember."
- Amy Gallo, "You've Made a Mistake, Now What?" HBR Blog Network, http://blogs.hbr.org/
hmu/2010/04/youve-made-a- mistake-now-what.html - Gene Kranz, "Failure is Not an Option." Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, NY
- John Baldoni, "How Good Leaders Correct Their Mistakes," HBR Blog Network, http://blogs.hbr.org/
baldoni/2008/07/how_good_ leaders_correct_mista.html
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