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A friend of mine–with a long history of Lean and Toyota Production System knowledge practice–recently shared a troubling story about a relative who works at a manufacturing plant. I'll call this factory team member “Guy.”

Call me cynical, if you must, but I totally believe this story, so I'm sharing it here. And my friend has zero reason to make this up.

Guy's factory has a bonus system in place that's supposed to reward employees for hitting key performance targets each month. That might sound like a good idea on the surface, but here's where it gets dysfunctional:

If there are any reported injuries, the entire bonus goes unpaid for the month.

I've shared this story verbally with a few people, and they always start smirking or chuckling. They know the answer to this question:

What could possibly go wrong?

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I've been writing about learning from mistakes for a long time, including my previous books before my latest, The Mistakes That Make Us. This idea isn't new, but it's essential–especially in fields like healthcare, where the stakes are incredibly high.

From Lean Hospitals:

“Mistakes are a reality in healthcare, and while we strive to prevent them, it's crucial to create an environment where they are identified quickly, addressed effectively, and used as opportunities for learning and improvement.”

From The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen:

“Leadership in a Kaizen culture means creating an environment where mistakes are seen as opportunities to learn, not as failures.”

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In writing The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, I wanted to challenge the way we think about mistakes, leadership, and organizational culture.

Throughout my career, I've seen firsthand how the traditional responses to mistakes–punishment, fear, and blame–can stifle growth and innovation. The ideas I present in the book are meant to provoke thought and, in some cases, to stir debate.

Here in this post, I'd like to share and dig into five of the most controversial quotes and concepts from the book, explaining why they're important and how they can transform the way we work.

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Imagine an NFL team that has been on a decades-long streak of winless seasons. The owner, who has been at the helm for most of that period, always believes that finding the right coach will solve the team's woes. But it doesn't.

Every few years (or sometimes more often), the owner blames and fires the coach and hires a new one, but the team continues to lose.

In a desperate attempt to turn things around, the owner signs a decent (but inexpensive) free-agent left guard away from the previous Super Bowl champion. This player, hailed for their leadership on and off the field, is expected to be the sole “transformational leader” and bring winning tactics and a winning culture to the struggling team. All. By. Himself.

Would you expect that to work?

I would not.

The blog post

Think about the last time you made a major career decision. I'm thinking of one of mine, in particular.

Was it about leaving a job for a new one? Changing directions in your career altogether?

Was it a debate about which of the job offers you would accept?

How easy was that? How long did it take you?

In hindsight, some of my career decisions took too long to play out. Afterward, my wife would ask, "Why didn't you do that sooner?"

I'm also thinking of a major decision that was in the news today—it's been drawn out over the past few weeks, and it's a more important decision than one I've ever considered.

During my career, one of the most helpful concepts I've learned about is "motivational interviewing." See more blog posts about this approach. This approach has roots in addiction counseling, developed by William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick in the 1980s to help individuals struggling with substance abuse find their own motivations for change. Its principles can be applied far beyond addiction, proving invaluable in leadership and coaching.

Lessons from Motivational Interviewing

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This post draws upon and summarizes content in my book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation.

Senior leaders must prioritize psychological safety and continuous improvement to foster an environment conducive to learning and innovation. Psychological safety is crucial for enabling employees to speak up about mistakes and ideas without fear of punishment. This executive summary outlines key strategies for cultivating psychological safety and leveraging it to drive continuous improvement.

“Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.”

Hear my podcast with Amy on these topics.

Prof. Amy Edmondson

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Two data points are not a trend. Two-data-point comparisons can be mathematically correct but practically meaningless.

This is true in workplaces and news articles like this one.

Multiple two-data-point comparisons (comparing last month to the previous month AND comparing it to the year before) don't paint the full picture the way a simple run chart would.

If a hospital's margin is "23% higher" than the year before, is that a difference between 1% and 1.23% or the difference between 10% and 12.3%?

Give me more data points. Better yet, create a chart that shows trends (or the lack thereof) over time. Otherwise, we're just celebrating (or bemoaning) every little up and now.

23% sounds like a big change. But that doesn't mean it's statistically meaningful. Was it down 27% the previous month? Possibly. Some metrics simply fluctuate around a stable average.

On NPR recently, the hourly news update covered economic indicators, including the truth and data points that say:

• Gas prices are UP 5 cents from a week ago
• Gas prices are DOWN 10 cents from a month ago

So, gas prices are both going UP and DOWN. It depends on which data point you use as a starting comparison -- and what point you might be trying to prove. What are those two facts "indicators" of?? What's the longer term trend??

The blog post with webinar link

As a Throwback Thursday, I'm sharing this webinar that I did back in 2012, as hosted by Karen Martin...

On this theme of “The Suggestion Box is Dead,” I thought to prompt ChatGPT to create an image of a burial scene and mournful employees...