Let’s face it. Sometimes we are going to mess up. The best of us make mistakes, make bad decisions, overlook important details or take on tasks we are not qualified to accomplish. Certainly, we should take steps to prevent errors when possible. Many leadership training programs teach us to anticipate problems, identify potential “choke points,” incorporate mechanisms to alert us to obstacles before they become serious problems and develop systems to monitor progress. Certainly, the work of W. Edwards Deming taught us to be more attuned to prevention than to inspection. All that is to the good but even under the best of circumstances, we will still make mistakes. So, the question becomes, “What do you do about it?” It’s easy to get caught up in the blame game and go after the poor slob who wrote the bad line of code or dropped the circuit board or sent out the wrong memo. It’s a whole lot more challenging to look at the situation as a learning opportunity.
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