I Was Wrong
The Daily Drip
"I was wrong."
How often do you hear that?
It certainly doesn't feel that often.
For some reason, it's a very human thing to feel like "wrong" is the same as "weak" or "incapable."
Of course, even if this were true, we might still have the consequences of failing to admit we were wrong.
Here's a business example.
When people are part of an "accountability" culture, that is, a culture that points fingers and says "you're fired because this problem is your fault," we get an undesired consequence.
Employees are afraid they'll be wrong so they don't measure their work or decisions. This means that when something goes wrong, we can't even tell. So, phew, we're safe from the chopping block.
What does that mean to the organization?
You've seen the symptoms before.
It means organizations have lots of "initiatives" but can't tell you if they're working.
It means organizations make large-scale, broad-sweeping changes that impact many departments but aggravate the people in the trenches.
It means that leadership doesn't interact or investigate underlying process issues--they expect their new software contractor bring the software AND the process.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Organizations that understand and can leverage failure have an unfair advantage.
And so can you.