Mistakes are not a bad thing for any organization. In fact, I believe that any organization that lets its managers make some blunders, is a stronger business than one where mistakes are severely punished.
As I have written earlier, I don't believe in defending the mistake. That is the last course of action a manager or a company should ever consider as a strategy. It's not a good idea to dwell on past business errors, as that plan can stop innovation in its tracks. Instead of creativity and new ideas being generated by the staff, conservatism, blaming others, and cover-ups become commonplace.
It is a powerful management technique to conduct a post mortem to examine how the mistakes were made, and how to benefit from the lessons learned. Turn the negative into a potential positive.
Instead of punishing and demoting those employees who develop new ideas, that for one reason or another didn't work out, they should be rewarded for their innovative spirit. Of course, creative problem solving is not the same as an error made through careless work.
Every mistake is different, but each mistake contains internal lessons that can be applied to future situations. What was learned can be put into place to avoid the same problems recurring. In fact, if the mistake isn't too large or costly, it could prevent even more serious problems down the road.
I like to think that every crisis opens up a potential new business opportunity. By not allowing failure within an organization, those chances for success are lost. Not seizing possible new business opportunities is also a management mistake. Missed opportunities often never return, and are lost forever. Fear of failure, on the part of business people, can result in a much greater loss, than trying new ideas that just didn't work out.
Every organization faces serious internal and external challenges. Some problems have been around the company for so long that they have become part of the furniture. Sometimes management makes it clear that any mistakes made in problem solving will not be tolerated. That is short sighted thinking.
In overly cautious organizational cultures, those difficulties are never addressed. Instead of attacking the problem, it's allowed to continue, often draining money and resources along with it. The problem is that any errors made, in attempting to rectify the situation, will be high profile and blame easily placed. Letting the status quo continue is safer for all concerned.
Only the company bottom line pays the price. Individuals are covered by the overall organizational loss. No one is made to walk the plank, as no one takes ownership of the issue at hand. Management that operates in this matter is doing no one any good, and are making a huge mistake themselves. They choose not to address the error, however, or to learn from it.
My recommondation to a business facing problems large or small is to address them head on. Consider that the problems are already costing the business money and resources. Let some talented people apply themselves to developing some creative solutions. Have them develop a potentially workable plan, and give them the resources to carry it out to completion.
If the proposed solution works, the long standing business hurdle is cleared. If the plan goes awry, consider that letting the problem continue cost money too, and that lessons were learned in analyzing the potential solutions. Don't punish the doers and problem solvers. Let them try again, armed with new knowledge and insight into the problem.
Your best people are the creative and innovative problem solvers. Give them every opportunity to succeed. Don't punish them for their mistakes. Learn from what went wrong, and next time, success will be the probable result.
Learn from your company's mistakes.
Don't bury them or pretend the mistakes never happened.
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