A framework and social contract for growing stronger from mistakes.
Lessons from managing over 700 employees while making mistakes – Resilience is more important than perfection.
You are an extraordinary leader, a founder, a manager. You and your team members are also human, so mistakes are bound to happen. When you try to run fast and achieve more, you will make even more mistakes. That’s ok and it happens to everyone. The trick is how to grow from mistakes vs slowly crumble. Use this framework to grow stronger from your mistakes rather than have them pull you and your team apart.
If you let mistakes linger, they develop a life of their own, lowering motivation, velocity and harming your culture. The worst thing about these mistakes is that you are often not even aware you made them and have no opportunity to fix them.
To deal with this fact you can slow down and try to be perfect or own up to the fact that you, and everyone else, will make mistakes. Then be proactive about creating a social contract to makes you and your company stronger rather than weaker when mistakes happen.
So how do you get it done? it’s a 5-second drawing and a 5-minute conversation you have with almost everyone in your company.
The 5-second drawing (only draw the black):
The 5 min conversation – explain what you drew:
- The squiggly line: all of us working fast together to achieve amazing things.
- The X: when I or someone else makes a mistake.
- The ?: This is critical, this is the point where the person “harmed” has the option to: ↘️ stay quiet and hold his grievance/annoyance in secret, or WITHIN 24 HOURS to ↗️ speak up and share the issue with the person who made the mistake (or their manager) so that they is aware and has a chance to fix it.
- ↗️ The upwards arrow: represents relationships and team getting stronger as they quickly overcome mistakes and are less afraid to make them in the future. They trust each other more and grow.
- ↘️ The downwards arrow: represents the relationships and team getting weaker since mistakes remain hidden, unfixed, and fester unhappiness.
- Your personal commitment: end the explanation by sharing your personal commitment to always respectfully share within 24 hours when someone has made a mistake so that they can fix it and become stronger. Then EXPLICITLY ask your employees to do the same with you, to let you know within 24 hours when you made a mistake so that you can have the opportunity to fix it. This allows you to continue to run at a high velocity and vastly reduces the damage caused.
Do this with the team several times. Eventually, you only need the 5-second drawing and not the conversation. Celebrate when the full-cycle happens, and the ↗️ is selected. It’s a fantastic feeling to know that mistakes are a critical part of compounding and constructive growth and that it is not only ok to make mistakes but rather a necessary step of mutual growth. Everyone can achieve more and be themselves and learn how to grow in a safe environment.
Be amazing, make mistakes,
Amit