Don't make any mistakes, or else

We need to replace the idea of mistakes = failure, with mistakes = learning opportunities.

First, what is a mistake? According to Google, a mistake is “an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong.” Cue the stream of negative emotions creeping in. No wonder why we avoid mistakes. 

But mistakes are often the most important result we can experience because they are the source of learning, improvement, and knowledge. Mistakes may be one of the two required ingredients of wisdom, the other being time. 

Let’s consider another point of view – give it some room to simmer.

Science Time

The scientific method is used in all sciences and has underpinned some of the most important discoveries of our time.  

To simplify the method, it suggests we do the following: ask a question, observe what happens, form our best guess at an answer, test the guess with data, analyze the results, draw a conclusion, and retest – again and again, until the loop breaks with a correct-enough conclusion.  

It is essentially a loop of mistakes until an acceptable answer is proven.

Bullets, then cannonballs

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great (and a host of sequels), applies a playful approach to mistakes, suggesting we should fire bullets before cannonballs. This concept encourages you to fire the least expensive bullet to find your target, and when you do, you apply all your firepower. 

This is what we've been doing at Atono from the start. 

Here are some lessons we learned to use this approach:

1. Ensure each person in the meeting or on the team voices their opinion.

There will inevitably be the quiet people and the ones who aren't. Find other ways – typing in the chat, voting with thumbs up or down – to make space for both.

We have experimented with passing the hot potato (everyone gets a turn to speak), raising a red flag (everyone has to pay attention to the flag), and using hand raising in virtual meetings. For our culture, we have found that hand-raising (in person or online) works great for us.

2. If you are a boss, get comfortable showing your mistakes to the team in your team meetings, publicly.

This is a powerful example and helps create an open and transparent culture, abandoning the blame game. As the CEO of Atono, I try to share one flub at every all-hands meeting, each month. Not to provide humble brags but to message clearly that we are all learning.

3. Encourage your team to eventually share the hypothesis and decisions they attempted and what they learned.

Mistakes teach us what doesn't work which is just as valuable as knowing what does work. We use several ceremonies for this including, our standups, retrospectives, and our monthly in-person meetups. For larger experiments, we schedule this time to discuss the hypothesis, tests, results, and conclusions (in the “tests” we cover the ideas that didn’t work).

4. Conduct your retrospectives with firm game rules.

No pointing fingers, focus on solutions, work together not against each other – blaming has no value. We are not unique here, but we do hold firm to the intention of our retros. The spirit of these meetings is to discuss, learn, encourage, and assist (for next time).

5. Encourage others to participate in the great game of failure experimentation.

Look for coaching opportunities to help those who need an extra boost of confidence to build up the courage to experiment, fail, and try again.

In my position (CEO), I often feel the pressure to make quick decisions. I know other leaders, team and technical leads, mentors, junior staff, and interns all feel pressure and anxiety when it comes to decision-making. I have learned, through my own mistakes, to assign the decision-making on projects to others (rather than just making them myself), then coach and assist them through the process of decision-making (we both learn when we share the responsibility).

A mistake-friendly culture

In short, mistakes are the spices in the special sauce – they are necessary. So, don't just create a culture that allows for mistakes (that's not enough), but instead, encourage experimentation without fear of retribution, criticism, or failure. Making a safe space for mistake-driven experimentation starts with each of us choosing not to criticize and blame others but instead to assist, teach, and encourage the process.