Company mistake-making culture

Oh, to be perfect and infallible. Isn’t that everybody’s dream? Well, in a word: NOPE. In France, according to a June 2019 study by Cadremploi involving 1123 respondents, 50% of executives stated they have suffered from symptoms of burn-out. And you know what? Burn-out isn’t confined to people with weaknesses or inferior skills: it affects the best and most committed of us. Workers who strive to be consistently perfect are the worst hit by burn-out due to their inability to allow for imperfect results.

It is as I write this that I am realizing that the right to make mistakes is perhaps a good way to safeguard against this new plague which has descended on France, negatively affecting both people and business success. It’s in everybody’s interest to fight against burn-out, both performance and profit-focused companies and employees in search of serenity.

Unfortunately, France has as yet failed to accept employees can make mistakes, in spite of the many advantages this brings:

=> + greater creativity: how can employees be expected to suggest new ideas if their last brainwave was a mistake and they almost got fired?

=> + greater productivity: less stress = less absenteeism

=> greater well-being: knowing you can make a mistake without getting yelled at increases employees’ well-being... and plenty of studies have shown this is employees’ n°1 priority when it comes to their work. So you want to attract and retain top talent? Develop a culture in which it’s OK to get things wrong.

 “An original error is worth more than a banal truth.” Dostoevsky

OK... this is all well and good, but in practice? Just saying it’s OK to make mistakes doesn’t make it part of company culture. Or does it? Setting the right to make mistakes in stone is pretty simple:

=> you have to tell your staff: it’s OK to get things wrong! It might seem dumb, but so many things rarely get put into words, no matter how simple this is. They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating... it’s the same for the right to make mistakes.

=> you have to explain what will happen if a mistake is made. Let people know that there will be no punishment, but simply an opportunity to learn and figure out how to do better next time. Far too often, we look for scape-goats when there’s a problem instead of searching for solutions.

=> everybody needs to understand a mistake only becomes a problem if it gets repeated. We all know that when you learn to walk, you take a few falls. Everyone has the right to a second chance, but working means making progress and learning; it’s not realistic to think you can learn without ever getting anything wrong. Making mistakes is a good thing if it helps you move forwards.

To sum up, the right to make mistakes should not be optional in business when it’s so fundamental and essential. Did you know that some companies have even brought in ‘company losers’ days’ on which each department presents to the others their worst mistakes or failures over the past trimester?

In these companies, the employees dare to try new things without worrying about getting fired if they don’t work out, and when one department messes up, the next one avoids making the same mistake or – even better – turns their failure into success thanks to a fresh idea. So many things came about by accident: post-its, ink-jet printers, microwave ovens and so on, wouldn’t it be a shame to pass up on such a great source of creativity?

Ga?l Chatelain

Other article : ‘Common sense’: a manager’s lethal weapon

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ga?l Chatelain is a best-selling French author. His work focuses on people-centred management, well-being and the fight against sexism at work. One of his books, "Mon boss est nul, mais je le soigne" (How to Fix a Lousy Boss), launched in 2017 is still n°1 in France in the management book category. 

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