Learning from errors at work

By ANGELA McCARTHY

Mistakes - we've all made them.

We've all felt stupid, embarrassed, humiliated, guilty and stressed as a result of the things we've done.

And we're all likely to make costly, time-consuming and plain dumb mistakes again in our personal and work lives.

But is making an error the end of the world? How bad, really, are stuff-ups?

According to Foresight Group business coach Jamie Ford, mistakes are a natural way of learning.

"Look at how many times kids do things wrong before they get it right," he says. "Mistake-making needs recognition as an essential and normal part of the learning process. We should encourage learning from mistakes, rather than fear of making mistakes."

And let's face it, says Iain McCormick, business psychologist and executive coach: "Most people don't learn from their successes.

"But when we fail, we're forced to look at ourselves and examine things more deeply."

But turning around a sense of failure, says McCormick, requires changing your frame of reference - the way you look at it.

Testing limits and feeling okay about losing are important traits in sales and marketing, says Jim Center, trainer and sales and marketing consultant.

"The person who claims they've never failed leaves two questions unanswered: did they stay safe, or did they go for it? And, can they cope with losing?"

Carter Holt Harvey-Ecopine Human Resources manager Kevin Gaunt works on the basis that people need to feel free to try new things that sometimes will not work.

"This is true learning," he says. "Equally, we expect that the same mistake will not be repeated."

Such comments may sound reassuring to employees who've accidentally put three teaspoons of sugar rather than one in their manager's morning cuppa. But in reality how does an organisation translate these theories into practice?

You start by setting up a no-blame culture, says New Zealand Institute of Management development manager Norma Hayward.

"If there is a blame culture, the person making the mistake might be in for a lot of trouble - even dismissal. That makes staff fearful of making mistakes and therefore reluctant to try new things or take risks."

And the first point is to differentiate between mistakes and wrongdoing, says Hayward: "A mistake is a genuine stuff-up without malice or ill-intention."

Then you look at systems. According to Ford, when a mistake happens the manager immediately needs to look at why the system allowed a mistake to happen.

"Systems protect an organisation's investment against the cost of mistakes," says Ford.

For example, Fisher & Paykel assembly-line workers all have the right to stop the assembly line if they can't complete their work to the standard required - which minimises the possibility of mistakes.

The Warehouse Group CEO Greg Muir talks of setting up opportunities for people to be creative, take risks, and hence make mistakes.

"If people feel they have autonomy to have a go - and that the ramifications of making a mistake are acceptable - then you have the right environment."

In the 90s, when The Warehouse was smaller, it was easier to have less bureaucracy and fewer rules, and an environment conducive to risk-taking, says Muir.

"As we have grown we have not necessarily worked hard enough at retaining that environment, and it is something that we are currently addressing."

Iain McCormick says it is important for managers to remember that no one comes to work to fail. "People want the support to succeed, and they don't want to cost companies money."

Unfortunately, a business usually has to bear the cost of any mistakes and some can be costly. If a computer system or phone system goes down for a day it can mean thousands of dollars in lost sales.

While some managers worry about being seen as soft for not coming down on mistake-makers, other companies see the expense of mistakes as part of training costs.

Ford describes a situation where senior executives were mentoring two younger managers. After getting a raft of advice from the senior executives, one of the young managers made a mistake that cost the company about $50,000.

But he wasn't fired. The senior executives saw the error as a $50,000 investment in his learning.

Coaching and mentoring is an important part of a no-blame culture in business, says Hayward.

The individual who has made the mistake might be coached, counselled or given training. A team meeting might be convened to analyse why the mistake has occurred.

"The important issue here is not to blame or do a witch-hunt, but to work out to ensure the same kind of mistake doesn't occur in the future.

"In most cases the mistake, will not rest with one individual," says Hayward.

Taking a coaching perspective is helpful, says Gaunt. Ecopine's approach is to help the person identify what happened, explore the issue, identify what they have learned and how they could apply that learning.

Fixing the mistake has to be the main emphasis, says Muir. When mistakes are made, The Warehouse Group looks at two things from the employee's perspective.

Did the mistake come from a breakdown of a relationship? Does the individual have the job skills required? Or was the mistake because they didn't technically know what to do?

"Any form of punishment is normally highly undesirable unless the team member has committed a serious breach of the law or company rules or has seriously violated our value system.

"The team member will know they are wrong and just need support to get on with fixing the mistake, and being in a positive frame of mind to take some learning from the situation."

Ford finds many managers turn off their emotional radar and deal only with facts. "But the workplace is made up of people with emotions, so you need to deal with their emotions as well."

Memo to managers: how to deal with staff mistakes:

* Allow the person to tell their story and get it off their chest, says business coach Iain McCormick.

"Often a mistake contains embarrassment, so allow the person to deal with the emotions."

Some managers worry that by sitting and listening they will open floodgates that will go on forever. Not so. Human beings can be angry or cry only for so long - on average about 20 minutes.

* Gently probe. Comment that we all make mistakes. " It is important to get across that 90 per cent of mistakes are probably due to systems, rather than humans," says McCormick.

* Ask what can be done to help to improve the system.

* Ask the person how they would overcome such a situation next time. This invites self-criticism.

* Don't do any of this publicly. "My experience is that people are much better at criticising themselves in private than in public."

Memo to workers: how to deal with your own mistakes:

* If the mistake might endanger life, follow the stated emergency procedures.

* If it is not life-threatening, advises Foresight Group business coach Jamie Ford, stand back and think logically about what steps you can take to rectify the mistake, prepare a quick plan of action and then recommend it to the manager.

* Listen to an irate manager or colleague and let them get it off their chest. Defensiveness accelerates conflict. If someone is angry, they are likely to get defensive.

* Be unequivocal in accepting responsibility and saying sorry. If you do it empathetically, it takes the wind out of angry people's sails.

"The ability to apologise is a real sign of emotional intelligence and maturity," says McCormick.

* In many cases, it may be advisable to anticipate the manager's reaction and acknowledge that your mistake is going to upset, suggests Ford.

"I once had a situation arise where I went to the general manager and said I'm going to bend over and you can kick my arse. He laughed, but it was a serious situation and I was acknowledging that he was going to be annoyed."

* Jamie Ford runs a one-day workshop, How to be a more effective executive: developing and applying emotional intelligence, at the University of Auckland on March 5. Details are available from