To Err is Human: Leveraging the Learning Curves

Step one? Eliminate blame and instead learn. 

People make mistakes. That includes leaders and every member of the team. Most of these errors are small and easily corrected. However, while they may seem insignificant as they occur, small mistakes, if repeated, can profoundly limit productivity and negatively affect profitability. It would be a mistake to let that happen without learning from them and working to mitigate repeats.  

Handling errors wisely is tricky. Leveraging those errors to make your Business more productive and profitable is even trickier. Doing so requires a change in the way errors are perceived by everyone in your company. This means eliminating the concept of blame and focusing on what happened, not who did it.  

Nobody said this was going to be easy. Changing attitudes and perceptions seldom is. But making the effort can make your company a better place to work and a more profitable one. 

Errors are how we learn.

The process of learning includes absorbing new information, attempting to apply it, and working your way through the mistakes that will inevitably trip you up a little. For example, learning to play a musical instrument or master a sport involves making and correcting hundreds or even thousands of errors. With that in mind, it becomes easier to think of every error as an opportunity to learn and improve. 

While the concept may seem simple, it involves creating a company culture focused on problem solving, not assigning blame. Team members who make or notice mistakes will usually solve them without bringing them to management's attention. At first glance, this may seem like the appropriate response. By doing so, however, you may be wasting valuable information that should be collected and applied in future instances.  

Making the lemonade. 

To accomplish this, team members should be encouraged to make a note of errors as they occur and describe how they were corrected. It must be stressed that the purpose of this exercise is to improve day-to-day workflow and not to assign blame. The information gathered should be reviewed regularly. Examining and comparing many isolated errors may enable you to make meaningful workflow improvements. 

Whether we like it or not, mistakes are going to happen. Why let this valuable data go to waste? Make no mistake, recording errors for future study can enable you to improve your operations, become more productive, and enhance your bottom line.