What’s your team’s opinion on mistakes?
The way I look at it, there are two types of mistakes:
Those that happen through incompetence, lack of attention or deliberate malice
Those that happen as the result of trying something new and falling short of the desired result
They’re distinctly different – in intent, in attitude and in long term results. The short term results can often appear similar, however and – in the heat of the moment – it’s easy come to down hard on anything that looks like a lack of success.
The teams I see thriving are the ones who clearly separate the two. The manager, the team members, and those peripherally impacted all understand the difference between the two and communicate clearly and regularly as to what kind of “mistake” something is.
