The Value Proposition of Making Mistakes

In my course each semester I give an anonymous online survey around midterms to allow students the opportunity to provide feedback and to gauge their overall experience to that point. This Spring semester as I was reviewing the free-text response section I landed on one particular comment:

“… I understand people make mistakes but both the TA and teacher have made mistakes... These topics aren't easy and when it happens frequently I am not pleased as this program is very expensive and I have high expectations.”

Though the remainder of the students’ comments were quite positive, this one stuck with me. What mistakes had I made? Frequently? Which of my students was this? How could I adjust my teaching for the last half of the semester? As the days wore on I found myself obsessing about this one comment; it went so far I even had a dream about it one night. I was in front of the classroom and couldn’t write a simple query; the harder I tried the more elusive it became until the students stood up in frustration and walked out. Needless to say, I had definitely blown the comment out of rational proportion and needed to come to terms with it in order to move on.

In reviewing my lectures for the first half of the semester I tried to think of any time I had made a mistake while either lecturing or one-on-one with the students. The nature of a database design course is such that I deal with multiple different schema and data models in a single day and from time to time have to negotiate writing code in front of a classroom while transitioning from schema to schema. Additionally, in my day-to-day life I'm more of a Microsoft SQL Server (MSS) guy, whereas the school where I teach runs MySQL on a cPanel server. Though MSS and MySQL are very close, there are differences in syntax that would on occasion catch me in the middle of a lecture and require that I rethink a query on my feet. 

As I identified each instance I thought back to my response; how had I acted when I made a mistake in front of the class? In each instance I had either immediately found a different approach, or for some of the more difficult instances, had found an answer during the week and brought it to the next class. In each case I had learned something new, and by so doing had added value to the course. As I mulled all this over I slowly gravitated towards a simple truth, one that we all instinctively know and that I had not allowed myself to initially accept – we grow by making mistakes.

In our professional lives I think we sometimes refuse to allow ourselves and others the necessary room to grow. We refuse to accept mistakes. This approach corners us into a place where we dare not leave our comfort zones, we refuse to explore the new for the sake of maintaining our security. Left untreated, I have seen this frame of mind grow and transform into a fear of obsolescence. Individuals who have not grown hunker down within their workspace, refusing to let others in for what they might discover about their abilities or lack thereof. In the long run this leads to individual bitterness, siloed workflows, and ironically – obsolescence.

The ability to recognize our need to grow and to accept the occasional mistake along the way is critical to innovation. It requires a healthy dose of humility on the part of the individual – recognizing that we do not yet know everything – and understanding on the part of the team. As we constantly seek for the new in order to improve ourselves, our workflows, and our strategies, we cannot allow our fear of failure to override our curiosity. Therein lies the value proposition of making mistakes. As recognizing them as a natural part of the learning processes we allow ourselves to see them not as stumbling blocks, but rather as opportunities for growth.

Now I’m not suggesting that we brashly trail-blaze in any and all directions for the sake of innovation because who cares if we succeed or fail. As with anything, we proceed with eyes wide open, taking calculated risks with transparency. Successful projects still require project plans and a clear understanding of the steps that will be taken to realize them. But what I am suggesting is that we allow ourselves to be curious, to grow, to embrace change, to explore new avenues with intentionality, without fearing so much. If we have to change course mid-project, so be it, but we are guaranteed to have learned and improved along the way!