Day 30: Make Mistakes Positively

When you make mistakes, fail fast, fail forward and, face the future.  Use your mistakes and those of others around you as learning opportunities, not ‘failures’. 

When I make a mistake, I can beat myself up about it; I sometimes struggle to respond positively to my emotional response. This can reduce my ability to learn properly from it.

In organisations providing health and social care services, as leaders we need to create the climate and culture for people to make mistakes, but in a safe environment.  Great leaders create space and provide resources for people to ‘try dangerous things carefully’. 

Day 17: Organisational Memory

To err is human; people learn from their mistakes but can still repeat them.  Organisations only learn from people’s mistakes if they find replicable ways to prevent them being repeated. 

This requires a learning culture, where people feel psychologically safe to recognise and admit errors.  Organisations need to look at how systems and processes support error prevention.  This can lead to a fear of standardisation that can hinder creativity and personalisation.

Systematisation doesn't have to mean standardisation, but a framework including design, delivery methods, performance/outcome measurement, continuous improvement processes; all based on evidence, policy, and values – pushing towards organisational vision.