Elke M. Schüttelkopf

ALL THE WISER:

LEARNING FROM OUR MISTAKES

A Practical Quality Management Guide for Employees & Executives, Teachers & Professors, Coaches & Consultants as well as for People from all Walks of Life Copyright © 2018 Elke M. Schüttelkopf Although the authors and translator have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book is correct, the author and translator do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. The tips and recommendations in this book are based on research studies as well as the practical experience of the authors. However, the authors do not guarantee success or assume responsibility for it. Please note that the names and characteristics of the people in the examples have been changed except for the historical ones. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

English translation and editing: © Corinne von Nordmann Cover design and illustrations: © Olivia Gnahn

Contributing guest author: © Dejan Stojanovic All rights reserved. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded, reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in academic papers, critical articles, and reviews. Purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Thank you for supporting the author’s rights. Table of Contents

Cover Page Title Page

Copyright & Disclaimers Elke M. Schüttelkopf, Translation by Corinne von Nordmann: Foreword: Why mistakes and a Mistake Culture are a good thing Introduction: How I learned to love mistakes

1. What Mistakes Mean Section 1.1 When mistakes lead to disasters Section 1.2 Mistakes: A question of definition

Section 1.3 Who is to blame Section 1.4 What characterizes a positive Mistake Culture Section 1.5 How to become all the wiser

2. When Mistakes Happen Section 2.1 Why we like to conceal mistakes Section 2.2 What mistakes cost us Section 2.3 Why the reporting of mistakes is vital Section 2.4 How executives can manage their anger

Section 2.5 Positive handling of negative news

3. Addressing Mistakes Section 3.1 Small but powerful: Mistakes in the everyday workplace Section 3.2 Why accusations fail

Section 3.3 How articulating needs can be helpful Section 3.4 Why everything has consequences Section 3.5 When the hierarchy plays a role Section 3.6 How to alleviate the accusations of others

Section 3.7 When serious grievances occur

4. Dealing with Mistakes Section 4.1 Fighting causes instead of symptoms Section 4.2 How to handle mistakes systematically

Section 4.3 How to learn from mistakes as a team Section 4.4 Establishing a culture of learning from our mistakes

Dejan Stojanovic: Failure: The Mother of Innovation Section 1. What is innovation? Section 2. Corporate innovation Section 3. Startup term “Pivot”

Section 4. Who runs the world? We all do!

About the Author Elke M. Schüttelkopf Other Works by the Author About the Translator Corinne von Nordmann

About the Illustrator Olivia Gnahn About the Guest Author Dejan Stojanovic Foreword: Why mistakes and a Mistake Culture are a good thing

Mistakes happen. They are part of the daily fabric of our lives, yet they continuously throw us for a loop as we find our own mistakes to be a source of great embarrassment. We nervously sweep little mistakes under the rug before they become evident. Major mishaps witnessed by others will often haunt us for many years to come. We also tend to handle the mistakes of others with little to no understanding. Emotions boil over quickly while we eagerly seek out a few culprits on whom to squarely place the blame. There are many ways to react to mistakes. However, very few of these practices are capable of permanently remedying our mistakes while enabling us to avoid them altogether in the future. Only in those situations where mistakes are dealt with in a calm and objective manner, can everyone involved truly learn from his or her mistakes. Solely in a positive Mistake Culture can all of the participants ultimately become all the wiser through the learning process.

This book was originally written for the German-speaking world, where there is a prevailing fear about mistakes in general. The silence about one’s own mistakes, the accusations hurled at the mistakes made by others and the tendency to punish mistakes of all kinds also does not exactly bode well for both the work and social climates.

Instead, it leads to a strong propensity to avoid mistakes even in companies that promote quality. This unconstructive approach only impedes efficiency through perfectionism while inhibiting innovation through fear of failure. Not even creative or innovative mistakes are tolerated, much less accepted and appreciated.

In German-speaking countries, the expression Fehlerkultur can designate both a negative and unproductive as well as a positive and productive error culture. But, it is generally used synonymously with a positive culture of mistakes - describing an open, factual, and constructive manner of handling them. It also seeks out a respectful and considerate way of dealing with the agents of the mistakes.

Unlike the English expression “Blame Culture” which denotes a culture wherein the game of finger-pointing reigns supreme, the German term Fehlerkultur does not imply a culture that is all about making mistakes. Rather, it describes a proactive society that focuses on dealing with mistakes in a positive and constructive manner while ultimately working on preventing them from occurring in the first place.

The German word Fehler can be translated either as “mistake” or “error.” We have opted for the word “mistake” in this context as it lacks the moral obliquity that the similar word “error” can sometimes have. The origin of these words is explained in more detail in the second section of the first chapter. The word Kultur means culture as it relates to our social environment as well as lifestyle. Even though both mistake and error are used nearly interchangeably throughout this book, we have chosen the expression “Mistake Culture” to represent the English equivalent of the German Fehlerkultur instead of “Error Culture.”

The term Mistake Culture refers to the way the people of an organization deal with mistakes. In effect, this book is about going from a negative Blame Culture to a positive Mistake Culture. Thus, effectively transforming us from being “none the wiser” as the saying states to becoming “all the wiser” in the process.

To boot, an ineffective Mistake Culture translates into a whopping 20% or more in losses for a company while an effective Mistake Culture yields an additional 20% in profits on top. It means that teams and companies that can revamp their Mistake Culture from a negative one to a positive one can expect an overall profit of up to 40%!

Through this book, you will learn how to create a solid foundation for successfully dealing with your own mistakes as well as those made by other people. It will show not only you and your loved ones but also your colleagues and bosses, how to better understand and handle errors plus how to work together to alleviate mistakes and misconduct both in the workplace as well as at home in the long run. This book is filled with plenty of suggestions, practical tips and effective methods to help you deal constructively with mistakes while learning as much as possible from them. We are excited to be embarking on this journey of exploring the timely topic of error management together with you and wish you every success in becoming all the wiser!

Elke M. Schüttelkopf and Corinne von Nordmann, June 2018 Introduction: How I learned to love mistakes

Nobody likes mistakes. I don’t enjoy making mistakes, either. I can still vividly recall plenty of situations at school where my classmates made fun of the incorrect answers given by the other kids. I will never forget their red faces or the general feeling of embarrassment. For a long time, it was most disconcerting for me to stand in front of the entire classroom completely exposed while the others were sitting together listening to my test answers. To avoid embarrassing mistakes, I simply didn’t say anything when in doubt. It was much easier to keep my mouth shut.

But that was a long time ago. During my studies, I already internalized a new error strategy. Saying nothing or not ticking the box on a multiple-choice test was akin to giving the wrong answer. With every attempt I made, my chances of stumbling upon the right answer also increased. My most important learning experience was that mistakes happen. When you do something, it could also very well be wrong. No matter how much one studies and how big of an effort one makes. At any rate, it is a mistake in itself to want to avoid making mistakes and to say or do nothing instead.

As I then promptly got to witness in my role as a coach and consultant on a daily basis, the fear of mistakes prevents people from learning and advancing. Thus, I considered it my mission in life to help create a learning-friendly climate. Without being aware of the term Blame Culture at the time, I banished any feelings of shame and embarrassment as best I could from my seminars and committed myself to dealing openly with mistakes.

In the late 1990s, many companies invested in expanding the scope of their quality management, but these efforts mostly failed to meet their ambitious expectations. Despite TQM, error reporting systems and other official measures, the employees did not address the mistakes. So, my advice was sought out, and the same reason was repeatedly identified as the cause during my team workshops: Mistakes are preferably not mentioned for fear of their negative consequences. The employees would rather hide or cover up their mistakes than risk their jobs. With these practical experiences in mind, I chose the topic of Fehlerkultur aka the way in which mistakes are handled as the focus of my first master’s thesis as part of my extra-occupational executive MBA program. I thought that I would have recourse to a mountain of relevant literature. But, I was clearly mistaken. I then almost made the mistake of changing the subject matter. Baffled, I stood there staring at the works of famous management gurus like Fredmund Malik, who rallied against mistakes and propagated error prevention as well as at the likes of consultant stars such as Tom Peters, who glorifies mistakes and postulates error- friendliness… After many months of hard work, I gained a better overview and managed to get to the heart of this subject matter. In doing so, I succeeded in resolving the existing contradictions and, for the first time, establishing a compelling and clear concept of the phenomenon Mistake Culture. However, that was not enough. I was all fired up with enthusiasm. I wanted to continue down this intriguing path. My next master’s thesis could not be strictly theoretical but needed to put into practice the insights I had gleaned. As part of the action research in the master’s program for supervision and coaching, I examined the Mistake Culture in a high- tech company. What an exciting opportunity it was to be part of the research and development department, where errors inevitably occur during the innovation process, but the end products must still meet the highest standards of quality, reliability, and functionality. As a management consultant, I then specialized on the topic of the culture of mistakes – the way in which organizations handle human, technical and systematic errors. To date in this role, I not only support companies in ascertaining and analyzing their respective Mistake Cultures but also in implementing the appropriate improvement measures. Before I knew it, I had the reputation as the “leading authority” on the culture of mistakes throughout the German-speaking world. Next up, my university published my research on Fehlerkultur. The book sold out soon, but it is still available as an eBook. I was then ever so honored when a noted publisher approached me to create a guide all about dealing successfully with mistakes. Enthusiastically, I agreed. I wanted to write a more practical guide after my first book, which is somewhat scientific in nature and therefore makes for a more challenging read. With my second book, my goal was to incorporate a slew of experiences and examples from the everyday workplace together with plenty of practical tips. The German-language booklet Lernen aus Fehlern: Wie man aus Schaden klug wird is in its second edition and now also available in English: All the Wiser: Learning from our Mistakes. Corinne von Nordmann has translated Lernen aus Fehlern: Wie man aus Schaden klug wird with great attention to detail into English. It has turned out to be a bigger undertaking than expected. Even though there are many borrowed German words in the English language such as Zeitgeist, kindergarten or rucksack, there is no approximate term for Mistake Culture. Corinne has mastered the translation challenge with flying colors, and I thank her not only for the excellent result but also for the inspiring collaboration. She has taken great care to convert the specific nuances and idioms so that nothing ends up lost in translation. To boot, Corinne has accompanied the editing process with a most exacting eye, and I am so happy that I was able to partner up with her for this project. My book has taken a quantum leap thanks to her top- notch translation and editing work.

Olivia Gnahn has also given the English version a special boost. As a graphic designer and artist, she has brought the many practical stories to life with her colorful brushstrokes and humorous interpretations. It never ceases to amaze me how I can read the thoughts of the characters just through their facial expressions thanks to the skillset of this most talented artist. Kudos! Thank you, Olivia, for enriching my book through the lively imagery of your zesty cartoons.

Last but not least, it was a great pleasure to meet Dejan Stojanovic at one of the Fuckup Nights in Vienna. As a gifted infotainment moderator, Dejan leads three podium guests and a packed audience through an inspiring evening during which you learn a great deal about the mistakes and failures of the founders of many a company while also learning from their experiences. I am thrilled that Dejan has agreed to be the contributing guest author for my book.

In his section at the end of this book, the self-professed Failure Evangelist provides more detailed insights into the fascinating world of creative and innovative mistakes drawn from his experiences with his guests as the founder and host of the Fuckup Nights in Vienna. Dejan grew up speaking both German and Serbo-Croatian. Thanks to his extended stays in the States, he was able to write his contribution directly in English. Furthermore, he illustrates the differences between the respective Mistakes Cultures in Silicon Valley and Europe most vividly by letting us partake in his study experiences and work impressions.

At this point, I would like to take the opportunity to thank my various friends, colleagues and business partners for their wonderful support and help throughout my journey from Lernen aus Fehlern: Wie man aus Schaden klug wird to All the Wiser: Learning from our Mistakes. Of particular note as my worthy accomplices but in no particular order: my professor Peter Heimerl, who encouraged and motivated me in my research; the head of development Erich Freitag, who immediately recognized the immense productivity gains possible by improving the existing Mistake Culture right off the bat; the quality manager Ulrich Vogl, with whom I was connected for many years by a very exhilarating and intense cooperation involving the optimization of the culture of mistakes as well as my close friend Arnold Reikerstorfer, an expert in quality management and seed financing, who is always there to support me with his professional advice and assistance on all technical and practical matters. Finally, a great big thank you and shout out to Carole Bowden in the UK! My heartfelt thanks go to my dearest life partner Christian Gnahn, the initial reader of each new chapter and the best sounding board of all time. As it so happens, Christian also “donated” the story in which he, as a specialist for customized database solutions, had to solve a train ticket debacle only to end up deliberately violating the client’s travel policy. Now that you have gotten a glimpse into the genesis of this book, I hope that your curiosity has been awakened and that you will be motivated to learn more about how to successfully deal with your own mistakes and those made by others plus how to go about improving the Mistake Culture at your workplace. By handling mistakes openly, you will be able to dismantle the inherent Blame Culture, foster the collaboration and mutual trust within your team thereby increasing employee satisfaction and ultimately winning the War for Talent. I hope that you will want to learn how to avoid costly and serious mistakes, how to improve the quality and safety of your products and services as well as your internal processes, thus upping your productivity and competitiveness through error prevention. Lastly, I hope that you will want to find out how to make the right kind of mistakes, how to promote further development and a higher capacity for innovation through error-friendliness while strengthening your future viability. All of this should enable you to be successful not only today but also tomorrow and the day after as well!

So, dive in and enjoy the read!

Elke M. Schüttelkopf, Vienna 2018 Elke M. Schüttelkopf (Author), Corinne von Nordmann (Translator) 1. WHAT MISTAKES MEAN

Mistakes are annoying. They create stress and hassles. Nobody needs them. But one thing is certain: they still occur. That is why it is worthwhile to rethink matters and make the most out of any given situation.

In this chapter you will learn:

Why the incorrect handling of mistakes can have devastating results Why mistakes are a question of definition Who is at fault What characterizes a positive Mistake Culture How to become all the wiser

1.1 When mistakes lead to disasters

Mistakes happen. We ended up with several cuts and bruises after stumbling while taking our first tentative steps. We shattered a few vases while playing ball. We messed up a number of homework assignments while attending school. But what does it matter in the grand scheme of things? To err is human, after all.

But not all mistakes are created equal. Letting mistakes be and chalking them up to being human, can be a dangerous undertaking. Therefore, it is a good idea to recognize the differences between minor and major mistakes, cheap and expensive mistakes, inconsequential and far-reaching mistakes.

Example: The cruise ship Costa Concordia left the Italian port of Civitavecchia at 19:18 local time (18:00 UTC) on Friday, January 13, 2012. The route through the western Mediterranean led past the island of Giglio that evening, for which a show-stopping maneuver was in the works. The Costa Concordia decided to deviate from its given shipping route to “salute” the island while completely lit up and sounding its foghorns in the immediate coastal area for a spectacular extravaganza.

The further sequence of events is well known from the worldwide media coverage. Most of the 3,206 passengers were having dinner when the ship collided with a rocky outcrop at 21:45 local time (20:45 UTC). Only 95 meters (311 ft) from the shoreline, the luxury liner rammed into a reef at 8 meters (26 ft), resulting in a 53-meter (174 ft) gash through the ship’s port side hull. Within moments, most of the hull was flooded as power was lost, the engines failed, and the rudder was blocked. Unable to maneuver, the ship drifted out to sea and began to tilt starboard. It was then pushed back towards the coastline by the wind and waves. After more than a mile of drifting aimlessly, the ship ran aground one last time. “Saluting” deeply, it came to its final resting place at an angle of more than 30-degrees on top of a rock near the coastal town of Porto Giglio.

Despite the icy water temperatures, about 200 passengers jumped overboard to swim ashore. Most of the 4,229 people (including 1,023 crew members) were rescued during the night via the lifeboats, ferries, other ships as well as helicopters rushing to the rescue. However, 32 people ended up losing their lives due to this reckless exercise.

Common misconceptions about mistakes Fallacy No. 1: Tough luck!

Example: When the top model Eva Herzigová smashed the champagne bottle against the luxury cruiser in the summer of 2006 during the christening ceremony of the Costa Concordia, nothing happened. The bottle remained intact, sending a shockwave through the sailors present. It could only mean one thing: a bad omen! On top of this, the Costa Concordia ran aground on a Friday the 13th. The shipping company immediately spoke of a “devastating tragedy.”

As is often the case, it was not fate that ran its course in the case of the cruise ship. Rather, the tragic events were the direct result of a series of mistakes that were caused by people. Mistakes are not controlled by fate. They are not the result of good luck or bad luck. The real tragedy is that on the one hand a serious mistake was made, which was avoidable. On the other hand, massive mistakes were made while dealing with the initial mistake, ultimately leading to the fatal outcome.

Fallacy No. 2: Fate determines the trajectory of mistakes!

Example: The impending disaster unfolded slowly. It was triggered by a wrong decision together with a series of both minor and major judgment errors, leading to the inevitable accident, which severely damaged the luxury cruiser when it crashed into a rock. At that point, it was not just an expensive mistake; it was also a dangerous mistake. By that time, it was no longer merely a case of material damage, but it already endangered the safety of the 4,229 people on board. However, the fatal outcome could still have been averted.

The fatal accident did not occur suddenly but over the course of one night. The collision took place at 21:45. Within a few minutes, the facts became crystal clear: the hull and the engine rooms were flooded, the power failed, the ship was no longer maneuverable, and the ship’s stability was in acute danger. All this was critical, but it still did not translate into a disaster. But then things took a very wrong turn. At around 21:54, the ship’s command center only informed the passengers about a “blackout” while claiming that everything was under control. Shortly after 22:00, the captain appeased the Coast Guard while keeping them in the dark about the actual conditions on board. At 22:33, a good 45 minutes after the disastrous collision, the general emergency alarm was raised on the Costa Concordia. The official order to abandon ship was only given at 22:54 and the first lifeboats were finally lowered at 22:55. Clearly, much too late!

When the general emergency alarm signaled for the passengers to head to the evacuation decks and report to the muster stations to await further instructions at 22:33, the luxury cruiser was already severely tilted to one side. As a result of the angle, many passageways were flooded and became impassable due to the increasing inclination. The lifeboats were blocked and could not be launched. In the ensuing chaos, the captain and some other officers avoided their responsibilities and fled from the ship at 23:19. The remaining crew proved to be uncoordinated and insufficiently trained in rescue operations. The damage suffered resulted in 32 fatalities. Many more survivors were seriously injured and traumatized, not to mention the loss of the 450-million-euro vessel itself. Recovery costs amounted to approximately 1.5 billion euros plus scrapping costs upwards of 100 million euros as well as several million euros in legal expenses and damages awarded.

Not to mention, the countless negative media reports incriminating the shipping company and damaging its image until the criminal proceedings had reached their conclusion.

This example illustrates how mistakes can have serious consequences. But, the tragic series of events was not due to a higher power; it was the direct result of gross negligence by the crew. Accidents happen. However, after the sinking of the Titanic, a series of security measures were put in place to ensure that even the most serious of accidents did not result in a catastrophe. A cruise ship such as the Costa Concordia could be duly evacuated within 80 minutes. This means that by 22:33, the rescue measures could have already been underway for more than 45 minutes. At 22:33, half of the passengers could have been safely tucked away in the lifeboats and on their way back to shore. However, that is not what happened! Instead, the accident itself was hushed up; the passengers and the Coast Guard were both lied to while the evacuation itself was delayed. Instead of wrapping up the salvage operations around 23:15, the rescue operations continued well into the weekend. A South Korean couple was saved more than 24 hours after the ship ran aground while an injured crewmember was only discovered and evacuated at noon that Sunday. For some of the passengers and crew, any form of help came too late. They had to pay with their lives for the mistakes, omissions, and failings of the responsible parties.

Important

1. Mistakes can be anticipated beforehand and mitigated or even prevented. Thus, mistakes can be avoided! 2. Critical mistakes must be quickly recognized and averted after their occurrence. Constructive handling of mistakes reduces the damage!

Fallacy No. 3: Guilty people must be singled out and punished

Example: The anger and outrage regarding this disaster were great. A guilty party was quickly found, and the media was readily presented with the scapegoat of the maritime accident: Captain Francesco Schettino. Schettino’s weaknesses came in very handy: his vanity, his mistress, and his inability to own up to his mistakes and to overcome them. The general public reacted with scorn and derision to Schettino’s statement that he simply had “slipped and fallen into a lifeboat” soon after the evacuation began.

Shortly after the accident, the general public passed judgment and found Schettino to be guilty on all charges. The captain chose the wrong course! He avoided his responsibility! He abandoned his ship, leaving the passengers to their fate!

When guilty parties are arrested or placed under house arrest in the midst of a media frenzy, the general public breathes a sigh of relief: Justice is served, something is undertaken, guilt and atonement are assigned. However, that is a mistake of gigantic proportions. In practice, the situation is only served up by the media through personalizing and emotionalizing it without getting to the root of it. Guilty parties are found, but not the reasons for the mistake. Only the symptoms are fought, but not the actual causes. The escalating emotions and the parading of the “guilty parties” only enriches the media conglomerates. On the other hand, handling mistakes in such a manner is counterproductive. When heads roll, it usually only serves as a distraction from the fact that everything else stays the same. The allegations against Schettino were justified. It was justifiable that he was charged with multiple negligent homicide and assault, with causing a marine casualty, abandoning his ship prematurely, and leaving behind those in need. However, it did not end there. It does not suffice if the captain is sentenced to serve a lengthy prison term, a few more parties agree to a voluntary prison sentence of a few years, and the shipping company buys their way out of any further official investigations to the tune of a cool million euros. Punishment for crimes is necessary. But, this does not bring about any improvements. If serious mistakes occur, it is essential to hone in on the mistake, to analyze the causes and to develop measures for improvement. Even if we tend to ascribe mistakes prematurely to the people involved, most of the mistakes are due to the system. There are many reasons for the sinking of the Costa Concordia: language problems, unqualified staff, insufficient training, lack of crisis preparation and acceptance of negligence by the shipping company management, no sense of duty and a missing risk awareness by the ship’s officers, the lower management tolerating the mistakes and breaches of duty in silence, rigid hierarchies as well as a significant power gap, etc. If only guilty parties are sought out, and sentences served, the risk of recurring mistakes is great. Thus just one year later a similar chain of mistakes claimed the lives of passengers and crew when the South Korean ferry Sewol went down on April 16, 2014. As was the case with the Costa Concordia, the safety regulations were also ignored here, and the ferry capsized. Like Schettino, the captain of the Sewol sent the passengers back to their cabins instead of the evacuation deck, and like Schettino, the captain of the Sewol also abandoned his ship. Unfortunately, the ferry did not come to rest on a rock but sank into the depths of the ocean. Of the 476 passengers and crew, including 325 high school students, more than 300 people paid with their lives for this systematic failure.

1.2 Mistakes: A question of definition

In the case of the Costa Concordia, if we add up all the mistakes that ultimately led to the disaster, we can fill long lists: inadequate nautical charts on board, promotions at the expense of safety, deviations from the shipping route, excessive speed during critical maneuvers, unauthorized persons on the bridge, a captain who chooses his mistress over his official duties, personal vanities and so much more. But, can this multifaceted chaos indeed be attributed to individual mistakes? What makes a mistake a mistake?

Mistakes: Coming up short of the goal The German equivalent for mistake is the word “Fehler.” It comes from the Old French expression “faillir,” meaning “to miss” or “to err.” The term was widely used by the military: Cannonballs were either categorized as hits or misses. They missed their intended target. This meaning has been retained over the centuries. To this day we regard mistakes as that which misses the goal, the polar opposite of what is worth striving for and correct. The expression “to miss” is an integral part of the word mistake and denotes how something has missed its mark as well as the intended goal. The closest corresponding word we have in English for the German “Fehler” is the expression to fail from the Anglo-French “failer” and the Old French “faillir” meaning to “fail in expectation or performance” and to be “lacking, miss, err, and to make a mistake.” Hence, in this day and age, the word mistake best describes the situation overall by tying in the various meanings throughout the ages. The word mistake does not imply moral obliquity unlike the similar word error sometimes can. Mistake refers to something being unintended, whether it is a choice or false judgment. It also does not contain the implicit negative association, which the expression to fail or the word failure has. To fail denotes an ending and implies finality. To make a mistake does not mean the end of the world. Instead, it can end up serving as a means to another end, a more successful one at that. The standard definition

In the course of a series of quality management initiatives in recent decades, mistakes have taken center stage. Companies have aimed to make fewer mistakes, produce fewer defective products and ensure higher product quality. Standards were developed, processes defined and quality standards established. The ISO 9001 states: Non-conformity is the non-fulfillment of a requirement. If the demand is not met, the goal is not achieved. It is therefore clearly a “mistake.” Different types of mistakes Requirements suit different needs.

Regarding the result: If the result fulfills all of the requirements, the quality is guaranteed. If it does not meet a specific requirement, the product is compromised. Such defective products do not just encompass industrial ones as well as the skilled crafts and trades; they can also occur in administrative areas or the service sector.

Concerning the procedure: If the procedure meets the requirements, it is good and right. Otherwise, it constitutes a process error. Process errors are steps and methods that deviate from the correct execution when creating products and services.

In light of the behavior: If the conduct meets our expectations, all is in order. If it deviates from it, it is regarded as a behavioral error. Behavioral errors are mistakes that occur in the demeanor of the person as well as in the communication and cooperation aspects.

Important

Sharpen your perception of different types of mistakes. Focus not only on product defects but also on the process and behavioral errors. This increases your awareness of mistakes.

Use the following table to check how well you manage product, process, and behavioral errors. Enter the abbreviation Pd for a product error, Pc for a process error and B for a behavioral error. Solution: 1 Pd, 2 B 3 Pc, 4 Pc, 5 Pd, 6 Pc, 7 B, 8 Pd, 9 Pc, 10 Pd, 11 Pd, 12 Pd, 13 Pc, 14 Pc When right and wrong are unclear

Requirements are not always as clear as they should be. They are usually precisely defined for products and processes, yet barely touched upon in the administrative areas. When it comes to our conduct, it is generally a gray area. Many requirements often only exist as implicit expectations. But even if they remain unspoken, they set a standard and people are judged accordingly: If the conduct matches our expectations, we label it as correct. Otherwise, we regard it as incorrect. To provide clarity and orientation for everyone involved, requirements are often defined in norms and secured by standards as well as established in processes. Nevertheless, it is often unclear as to what constitutes right and wrong. Different people often interpret what determines a mistake differently.

Example: The two software specialists Rashad and Chris are up working late at the computer and want to wrap things up by booking train tickets for an upcoming meeting at a far away branch of their main client. The situation ignites an argument.

Rashad wants to get coach tickets. Chris says, “Check it out. Here is a special offer for a first- class ticket at half price. Instead of paying 207 bucks for coach, this costs just 129 bucks!” Rashad: “But we can’t do that. You know the guidelines of our client: Only coach tickets!” However, Chris insists on the special offer: “But look, it’s so much cheaper!” Rashad shakes his head vigorously: “We can’t do that, it’s wrong. We have to stick to their travel guidelines.” “No, you’re wrong!” Chris says. “The first-class ticket is so much cheaper. It would be a mistake to get the more expensive ticket!” Convinced that they are both right, they buy their respective tickets: Rashad gets his for coach while Chris opts for first class.

But which decision is the wrong one aka the mistake? Is it a mistake to blatantly disregard the travel guidelines? Or is it a mistake to buy the more expensive ticket according to the rules?

A closer look at the requirements is recommended in this case. The travel policy is an explicit requirement. It was created to provide clarity to everyone involved regarding any business trips. Therefore, the compliant behavior is undoubtedly correct, at least at first glance. But what is the meaning behind the directive? Why was it established? What is its real goal? Does not the person who ignores the travel guidelines by paying more attention to cost-saving alternatives instead, achieve the goal better and thus act more appropriately?

We all try to do our best. According to our reasoning, we act correctly. But that does not mean that others will also view it that way from their point of view. To avoid mistakes, it is often necessary to clarify requirements that are not clearly defined.

Important Clarify the requirements. Be aware of both the pronounced and the unspoken requirements. Only then will you have the opportunity to act accordingly, to do the right thing.

1.3 Who is to blame

The question of what constitutes a mistake has occupied humanity for thousands of years, as have the questions about what is good and evil, what is right and wrong. Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle consciously distinguished between voluntary and involuntary action. In his opinion, a mistake is an involuntary act whilst any form of wrongdoing constitutes a voluntary act as it is done with intent to cause harm. Aristotle places the spotlight on the intention. The mistake lacks the bad intention. We can derive the following conclusions from this distinction:

Mistakes happen. A mistake is usually an incident that happens to someone unwittingly. Thus a mistake is often an oversight, a slip.

A mistake is made. Sometimes a mistake as also an action that you consciously set out to do, but without intending for it to have any negative consequences and still believing that you are doing everything by the book. You are acting on the basis of a misconception, a misjudgment or an incorrect point of view, without realizing the error of your ways. However, you are doing it all based on good intentions.

A crime is committed. On the other hand, cases of wrongdoing are based on bad intentions. One is aiming to cause the greatest damage, or one approves of the dire outcome and thus acts deliberately or with conditional intent, ergo culpably.

For constructive handling of mistakes, it is therefore imperative to clearly distinguish between mistakes that simply happen or are supposedly made with good intentions in mind versus ones undertaken with malicious intent.

Example: Nicole works in the public sector. Her job is to review the files of her colleagues, to recognize processing and calculation errors and to initiate their immediate correction. In so doing, she encounters some serious resistance. Whenever she enters an office, the clerks turn to stone. Nevertheless, she sticks to her guns. Relentlessly, she wags her index finger and starts off with: “It’s all your fault!” Within a few seconds, the mood explodes. The clerks fight back against the claim while defending their actions. Long after Nicole is gone, all they still hear echoing in their heads is the charge of “guilty, guilty, and guilty!”

Anyone who discusses mistakes in the context of blame confuses two different categories: mistakes and wrongdoing. However, only where there is malicious intent can we speak of guilt. Thus, the phrase often quoted in companies that “the employee is to blame,” constitutes an error in reasoning.

Anyone who accuses others of having made a mistake takes on the role of prosecutor. One accuses them of malicious intent. One turns the others into the defendants, accusing them of some form of wrongdoing. Therefore, do not act surprised if the others deny or shirk the blame. In fact, one makes a mistake in dealing with mistakes: a behavioral error.

Important A mistake happens, it is made, it is caused, or it happens unwittingly. But it is not intentional. Only cases of wrongdoing are intentional as they are committed conditionally or even deliberately.

1.4 What characterizes a positive Mistake Culture

The expression Blame Culture refers to a “culture” in which mistakes are experienced as a source of great embarrassment, in which those causing the mistakes are blamed and branded while the finger is pointed at them for all to see. Therefore, a Blame Culture is the epitome of mishandling mistakes and their agents, hence an ineffective or negative Mistake Culture. All of us have to contend with this destructive kind of behavior. That is why it is worth reviewing the problematic aspects of the Blame Culture and the underlying individual characteristics of how to deal with mistakes. From a Blame Culture to a positive Mistake Culture You are not handed an effective and positive Mistake Culture. Rather, it results from a respectful and appreciative attitude towards one another as well as a constructive and cooperative approach. Four aspects are especially relevant. #1: Seek out causes instead of guilty parties

A positive Mistake Culture does not seek out culprits. Instead, it searches for the underlying causes. It requires shifting one’s perspective. Instead of focusing in on people, you review the matter at hand.

Search for the culprit Search for the cause

Who did that? How did this happen? Who caused this? What led to the mistake? Who screwed up? What are the causes?

#2: Aiming for improvement instead of punishment A constructive Mistake Culture is not about punishment. One does not act as judge and jury, sentencing the guilty parties. One does not demand punishment, but requests improvement. The focus shifts from penance to solution.

Punishment Improvement

You will regret that! What can we do better? That is going to have consequences! How can we stop the mistake? That is going to result in disciplinary How can we prevent a repetitive action! mistake? #3: Staying calm and sticking to the facts In an effective Mistake Culture, mistakes are not countered by negative emotions. Outbursts of anger, screams, and reproaches turn out to be counterproductive. Therefore, one stays calm and collected while clarifying the issues at hand on the factual level.

Negative emotion Objective approach

Are you blind?! A mistake happened. You drive me nuts! The behavior does not meet the requirements. Your work is shitty. The work contains the following flaws…

#4: From working against one another to working with each other A constructive Mistake Culture is characterized by the respectful interaction with one another, even if mistakes are made. You meet on equal footing while being understanding of mistakes and expressing confidence that you can learn from them together.

Working against one another Working together

You idiot! That also happened to me! You failed! I am sure you will learn from it. You need to find a solution asap! We will surely find a good solution together!

Guidelines for a positive Mistake Culture

1. Do not seek out culprits and do not get personal, but get to the root of the problem instead.

2. Avoid scapegoats and concentrate on taking a solution-oriented approach while working together to improve matters.

3. Avoid embarrassment and loss of face. Instead, aim for effective cooperation as well as constructive joint action.

4. Do not let others experience the brunt of your anger; skip the dressing- down part. Do show understanding that mistakes happen while providing support and a positive outlook. Cooperative handling of mistakes The term Mistake Culture refers to the way the people of an organization deal with mistakes. One determines both implicitly and explicitly how the mistake and its agent are dealt with, how a mistake is viewed and evaluated. It can entail a more or less positive approach as well as a more or less constructive one.

Example: Indira is currently undergoing training to become an electrician. Reminiscing about her prior school experience, she says: “Mistakes hardly played a role at school. We were late, and nobody cared. We skipped doing our homework and only learned the basics. The teachers didn’t seem to mind. Looking back, both we as students as well as our teachers took mistakes far too lightly.”

Indira then contemplates the Mistake Culture of the company in which she has been working as a trainee for a year: “The first year as an apprentice was anything but easy. I had to change fundamentally. Suddenly, I realized that turning up late for work cost us money and caused problems and that mistakes could do a great deal of damage. I was encouraged to point out and learn from the mistakes. Everyone took care to ensure that the same mistakes did not happen over and over again. At first, it presented me with a challenge and was a big change of pace for me!”

Every social entity develops its own Mistake Culture: classes, schools, families, friends, clubs, and companies. The specific Mistake Culture is thereby the coincidental result of the long-term co-operation of its different members. Sometimes it is destructive, sometimes more or less constructive. More and more organizations are now opting not to leave their Mistake Culture to chance but to shape it consciously.

Not every organization benefits from the same Mistake Culture. Personalizing and emotionalizing matters characterizes the externally visible Mistake Culture of the media. This tactic sells papers and rakes in high ratings for both the press and the broadcast stations. Politicians also thrive on the so-called naming, blaming and shaming, benefiting from finger-pointing and rolling heads.

However, this approach is not appropriate for organizations based on cooperation. A Blame Culture proves to be counterproductive in this case. It undermines dealing openly with mistakes. As a result, mistakes are then concealed or covered up. They remain undetected for a long time, causing more mistakes. If they become visible at a later stage, guilty parties are made an example of and sought out. The search for causes and solutions is omitted; a learning process does not take place. This situation quickly leads to a disaster. Important

Wherever people live or work together in the long run, where cooperation is needed, where long-term success and sustainable results are the goals, a constructive Mistake Culture is necessary.

1.5 How to become all the wiser

Even in the context of an effective Mistake Culture, nobody is thrilled about mistakes. No one jumps up and down for joy when mistakes happen. Mistakes make people uncomfortable. They are embarrassing. This is especially true when they see the light of day. Mistakes are viewed as flaws. We quickly regard them as failures. Yet their flip side is a positive one. But we often only realize this in hindsight.

Example: Franz is a winemaker. He still remembers all too well the wine scandal that shook Austria and the rest of the world in the mid-1980s: “We all knew for a long time that our wine was being adulterated. But nobody said anything. There was such an incredible amount of fear that we would ruin the wine market when it all came to light!” He falters: “And the bang was mind- blowing when it was discovered that some winemakers were mixing in antifreeze on a grand scale in order conjure up expensive quality wine from cheap table wine.” Franz lets his gaze wander from the panorama windows of his wine store over to the vineyards: “The next few years were terrible as we were stuck on endless barrels of wine. It was not possible to sell Austrian wine. Many winegrowers went bankrupt. At the time it was a total disaster. Then they introduced the strictest wine law in the world, with massive controls. We all thought that this was the end of the Austrian wine industry. But by taking a step back, everything was put into perspective,” he says proudly and reaches for an expensive bottle on the shelf. “Look, now one bottle costs a lot more than a double-liter did at the time! That’s a nice wine - a top wine! We don’t just export it to the best hotels and restaurants in Vienna, but also to New York and Tokyo.”

The mistakes were handled for a long time in the negative manner of the Blame Culture: first of all by not wanting to admit to it and then keeping it under wraps, followed by a complete denial and belittling of the situation while pointing the finger at other bad practices abroad. But that was not exactly helpful. Millions of liters of poisoned wine were confiscated, winegrowers were arrested, and the import of Austrian wines was banned in many countries, including the USA and Japan. Under the watchful eyes of the entire world, the local wine industry had no choice but to confront the problem. Not only the Austrian winegrowers but also the Austrian politicians had to inevitably learn from this mistake by following up with radical measures. However, the courage to be consistent paid off. Thanks to a massive structural adjustment, strict legislation and even more stringent controls combined with new quality awareness, the Austrian wine again underwent a transformation – this time from a toxic chemical cocktail to an exclusive top wine.

If critical mistakes are negated, and their further course is not stopped, the resultant costs increase. However, if the constructive handling of mistakes takes place, the mistakes can be turned into opportunities. Mistake as an opportunity

There are many examples in which mistakes turn out to be opportunities, especially in the sector of innovation management. Many mistakes that are made in the research and development fields turn out to be extremely useful upon closer inspection. The goal is not always achieved, yet the failure often proves to be a blessing in disguise.

Example: The chemists from 3M completely missed the goal of developing a strong pressure-sensitive adhesive for the aerospace industry. The result was the exact opposite: an odd kind of adhesive that not only stuck but could also be peeled off again. It became known as the success story of the Post-it Note. A drug developed as a circulatory drug did not meet the requirements of the pharmaceutical company, as it had no significant effect on the pulmonary system. But, the human test subjects revealed a surprising side effect. Since then, the failed drug has made Pfizer billions as the little blue pill named Viagra.

However, creative and innovative mistakes are not the focus of this guide. They warrant their very own book. So, the final section is meant to provide some more detailed insight into the fascinating world of such mistakes as a preview. However, the core of this booklet is about mistakes that happen in the everyday workplace: minor and major, uncritical and critical, cheap and expensive mistakes. It depicts mistakes that are just plain annoying, which one would like to sweep under the rug or simply forget about altogether. But even here it is worth the time and effort to examine them while utilizing a constructive approach. They can be beneficial and result in a realization, which leads to an improvement of the situation. One can become all the wiser instead of staying none the wiser. Making the most of it Whether you like it or not, mistakes happen. Whether they are against policy or not, they still occur. They are a fact of life. You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs. However, accepting mistakes as a part of life does not constitute resigning oneself to the consistent recurrence of repetitive mistakes.

Dealing openly with mistakes so that they are recognized, discussed and solved together is what is needed. Learning from our mistakes is essential to prevent them from recurring. Companies that view mistakes as opportunities and cultivate a constructive Mistake Culture profit from this in so many ways. Your advantages:

1. High job satisfaction: Dealing with mistakes in an open manner, both amongst colleagues as well as between employees and leaders. There is an understanding that mistakes happen together with a respectful handling of mistakes. The fear of mistakes becomes obsolete.

2. High work safety: A high level of error awareness provides a clear view of accident risks. The prevention of accidents has top priority. Even minor near misses are taken seriously and used as an opportunity for improvement. Work accidents are avoided.

3. High quality: Employees and managers are equipped with a high- quality awareness, diligence, and compliance. Mistakes are quickly detected, reliably identified and worked on together. Sustainable remedial measures and error prevention tactics are developed.

4. High productivity: Reject costs and modification work will be progressively reduced through sustainable corrective and preventive measures. Processes are continuously improved. Work runs smoothly while goals are achieved quickly.

5. High competitiveness: Mistakes are already recognized and managed within the company; they do not make their way to the outside world. The customers are satisfied with the quality and the image is as good as the service. The company is productive and competitive; the jobs are secure.

Important Successful handling of mistakes ensures that dealing with their causes is both positive and appreciative as is dealing with the mistake itself while developing improvements and learning together from the mistake so that you also become all the wiser in the process. Everyone involved benefits from a positive Mistake Culture in companies: employees and executives, the management, the company as well as the customers.

At a glance: What mistakes mean

In quality management, a mistake is defined as the failure to meet a requirement.

Mistakes happen accidentally or unwittingly. They occur without malicious intent.

In a Blame Culture, guilty parties are ferreted out and treated as scapegoats.

In a constructive Mistake Culture, causes are analyzed, and improvements are worked out.

In a positive Mistake Culture you do not fight the agent of the mistake, but the mistake itself. You learn together from the mistake.

Mistakes indicate deficits. Dealing successfully with mistakes provides the basis for the further development of the individual, the team, and the organization. 2. WHEN MISTAKES HAPPEN

Mistakes happen. Simply ignoring them or sweeping them under the rug can be very costly. It can also lead to disasters.

In this chapter, you will learn

Why concealing mistakes is a dangerous undertaking

Why the reporting of mistakes is vital and worth the extra effort

How executives can learn to deal with their anger over mistakes properly

How to deal with negative news in a positive manner

2.1 Why we like to conceal mistakes

We quickly experience mistakes as a great source of embarrassment. Instead of being perceived as a loser, we want to be viewed as a winner. Yes, the others make mistakes. But we sure don’t! So what happens when we end up making a serious mistake? How do we deal with that?

Example: Tony has been a forklift operator in a large production plant for more than ten years. The order situation could not be better with production running day and night. Tony prefers working alone and attaches great importance to making sure that all the materials arrive at the right place on time and that all the finished parts are delivered quickly.

As he zips around the corner shortly after midnight with a boatload of boxes, he turns too quickly into the production hall. Tony notices that he cannot stay the course and how the centrifugal forces are pulling the vehicle out from under him. He slams on the brakes, but it is too late, and he hears a loud thud. Startled, Tony stops the forklift and reverses. “Lucky me!” he thinks. The vehicle has only sustained a few small scrapes on the varnish. The damage to the conveyor belt is also kept to a minimum: The cover sheet on the edge is slightly dented, but this is quickly bent back into shape with a little muscle. At the end of his shift, Tony keeps his mouth shut about the incident. He does not want to make a mountain out of a molehill. He also prefers avoiding any paperwork and finds such an accident report to be completely superfluous - especially as the forklift was already riddled with plenty of dents. A few days later, Tony has already forgotten all about the matter. Nobody has noticed anything amiss. Several weeks after the incident, the customer complaints suddenly skyrocket, and the factory foremen are baffled. They cannot fathom why the production quality has taken a downward turn. Immediately, further production is halted, and a team of experts is brought in to troubleshoot. The cause is found to be due to a small sharp chip on the conveyor belt whose origins cannot be explained.

Tony continues to drive his loads night after night, without ever noticing the ongoing commotion over in production. He is thus utterly oblivious to the fact that his little nighttime incident amounted to 1.7 million euros in damages.

We wonder why Tony simply brushed aside his (driving) error, why he did not fill out an accident report, why he did not inform the warehouse manager about the incident and why he kept the matter a secret from his colleagues. What motivated him to act accordingly?

Mistakes put a damper on our ego. They damage our self-image while triggering fear and resistance. There are many reasons why mistakes are not reported

1. Apparent insignificance: Some people do not report mistakes as they classify them as being insignificant and consider a notification to be a complete waste of time. No one wants to sweat the small stuff.

2. Apparent resolution: Other people do not report mistakes because they themselves have already undertaken some steps to correct the mistake. The matter seems to have been resolved.

3. Lack of awareness or ignorance: Still others refrain from reporting mistakes because they seem unimportant to them or they see no benefit in doing so. They renounce the endless “bureaucracy” and seemingly unnecessary work.

4. Low self-esteem and shame: Some people are embarrassed by mistakes. They feel uncomfortable admitting to them. They are bashful and try to avoid any unpleasant talks by opting to keep quiet. 5. Fear of social consequences: Other people are worried about the negative emotional reactions encountered via their workplace. They are afraid of being ridiculed or scorned by their colleagues and fear the disapproving looks of those in charge. The thought of a proper dressing-down by their boss also paralyzes some people with fear.

6. Anxiety over financial consequences: Still others avoid reporting mistakes because they are afraid that they will have to pay for the damages themselves, which could prove detrimental to their annual premium, salary increase or possible promotion.

7. Worry about labor law consequences: Some people do not report mistakes because they fear warnings or dismissals. They are concerned that the disclosure of the mistakes could endanger their jobs.

8. Additional effort: Other people refrain from reporting mistakes because this sometimes leads to additional tasks. They try to avoid documenting the mistakes as well as processing the mistakes systematically by analyzing the causes and utilizing corrective measures at all costs.

9. Conflicting goals: Still others refrain from reporting mistakes in order not to jeopardize the team or departmental goals. For example, they hope to thus prevent the official rejection figures from increasing, to reduce the reworking times and thus keep the apparent productivity ratios high while not jeopardizing the given delivery time frames.

Important

Open-mindedness regarding mistakes is the supreme discipline in dealing with mistakes. Much too often, human emotions such as shame, insecurity, self- doubt, and fear are standing in the way of exposing mistakes. People thus tend to find “good reasons” to withhold or conceal a mistake. It is rather shortsighted. In the long run, it often leads to an escalation of the situation.

2.2 What mistakes cost us

Mistakes create costs that vary depending on the individual case. This is nothing new, and we are all aware of it. Surprisingly, the same mistake can be less costly or very expensive depending on the context. Example: When a vase “Made in China” topples off the desk, it causes a few euros or dollars in replacement costs. On the other hand, a Ming Dynasty vase will cost millions in damages if it breaks.

Direct and indirect costs of mistakes In quality management, a distinction is made between the direct and indirect costs of mistakes. The direct costs account for only a small part of the equation. The indirect costs are responsible for the far more significant portion of the costs. The indirect costs encompass the internal costs for any reworking, retesting and delayed deliveries, as long as the mistake was detected within the company together with the external costs incurred when the customer first notices the defect. These include warranty coverage costs, damage to a company’s image as well as loss of customers and market shares. The development of the costs of mistakes can be traced back to a spectacular emergency landing that went viral.

Example: One of the four engines of the Airbus A380 exploded during Qantas Flight 32 on November 4, 2010. Triggered by an internal oil fire, debris from the engine slashed through the engine and wing, damaging the flight controls, landing gear, and a multitude of systems in the process. One engine caught fire, the second one failed. Severely damaged, the plane headed for Singapore’s Changi Airport. But the fuel dump nozzle was also damaged, so the extra fuel could not be shed. As a result, the maximum landing weight was 50 tons over the prescribed weight, and the landing had to take place with a discrepancy of 10 tons between the wings at a lateral slant. The much too heavy plane threatened to overshoot the runway. It was nothing short of a miracle that the Australian airline pilots managed to land the plane. All 440 passengers and the 29-person crew were able to depart the aircraft safely. But during the ordeal, their lives were hanging by a thread.

Later on, the cause of the accident was determined: a little oil feed stub pipe was defective. A series of these small pipes had been manufactured with too thin wall sections. The non- conforming pipes were then fitted to the respective engines, but the thin walls shortened the lifespan of the oil feed stub pipes significantly, leading to a fatigue crack.

This example illustrates: If mistakes are not detected and remedied, even seemingly small mistakes can result in massive costs and security risks. The 1-10-100 Rule

Quality researchers have shown that the cost of failure increases over time: The further along a mistake is detected, the higher the costs will be. The theory states that the cost of mistakes increases in the order of their magnitude. This knowledge is therefore also known as the 1-10-100 Rule. If a mistake is detected and corrected right off the bat during the development stage, its costs amount to one unit. With each additional step in the manufacturing process, the costs increase tenfold. During further processing in production the costs increase by 10 units, during the final quality controls by 100 units, and after the market launch, they increase by 1,000 units due to the resulting damage to the company’s reputation together with the costly recall as well as necessary corrective measures.

But what does this all mean in practice? What kind of damage was incurred by the engine manufacturer, even though all 469 people got away unscathed? What did the near crash of the superjumbo end up costing the relevant parties?

Example: Failure to remedy the mistake from the beginning cost the company a fortune. Instead of incurring a few hundred Australian dollars in direct costs for the materials and services rendered during the immediate troubleshooting phase, the repair costs of the damaged plane amounted to 138 million Australian dollars after the accident. This corresponds to about a third of the original price of an Airbus A380. In addition, the indirect costs exploded: Rolls-Royce, the manufacturer of the engines had to award 95 million Australian dollars in damages to the affected airline Qantas. The immeasurable damage to the airline’s image as a result of the many years of the incident being reported internationally as well as the associated loss of sales also had to be factored in. However, good fortune played a decisive role here: hundreds of people almost lost their lives, and thousands of relatives would have lost their partners, children, and parents. Additionally, a crash with fatalities would have resulted in years of litigation and damages. All because of a little oil feed stub pipe, costing less than one hundred dollars in production.

Error cost escalation

What mistakes cost us can be illustrated by their escalating costs. However, exponential costs are not just direct costs such as reject, rework or repair costs. The engineers Schirmer and Breun discovered that in industrial companies, every million in warranty claims is followed on average by another five million in lost sales from disgruntled or not acquired customers with another million in litigation costs. Maybe you are breathing a sigh of relief now because you are not active in the manufacturing industry. Like many others who have desk jobs, you may never have come across reject, rework and warranty costs. Unfortunately, mistakes also lead to considerable expenses in other areas.

Example: Chin-Sun is head of the accounting department. She leads a small team with five employees. Looking back, she sighs: “First of all, we lost an experienced specialist. After months of sick leave, she surprisingly opted for an early retirement package. All of us were already burning the candle at both ends because we took over her responsibilities. That’s why I immediately hired the first applicant. The trial period proved to be a mixed bag. Then I thought, it would all work out in the end. But the problems kept piling up: At first, the newbie made many mistakes, and I had to consistently control and correct her while the team could only entrust her with a few menial tasks. The newbie was quickly overwhelmed. She kept collapsing from the stress and was often out sick.

Our team became a ticking time bomb. One employee had already developed visible burnout symptoms. First, we underwent team development coaching followed by mediation training. Eventually, I had to admit that I had made a mistake. I had hired an unqualified employee. I had been downplaying my wrong decision and hoping for the tide turn to turn against my better judgment. I had not reacted appropriately. Ultimately, my mistake ended up costing us all a great deal of money, time and nerves!”

The example shows that even in the administrative area, mistakes can be costly and have serious consequences. When it comes to mistakes that are ignored such as when a wrong decision is not corrected, the costs will increase exponentially over time. Besides the resultant corrective costs due to the termination, new recruitment and re-training in the above example, the follow-up costs also increased manifold thanks to a heavier workload for the team members, more overtime, illness-related absences, reduced productivity, and external consulting. Without stopping the error curve immediately by detecting and correcting the mistake itself, further indirect costs can occur. For example: through bullying of the newbie, burnout in the core team, emotional termination of the most competent team members as well as a significant quality deterioration leading to the long-term loss of loyal customers.

2.3 Why the reporting of mistakes is vital

We ask ourselves: is the critical incident involving the Airbus A380 a mistake that nobody realized? Something that simply slipped through the cracks unnoticed despite the numerous strict controls in place? Was everyone just unlucky in this case? Or maybe nobody pointed out the mistake? Was the critical importance of the mistake misjudged? Why did no one take immediate action? The answer is rather disturbing: the issue at hand was known for a long time. EASA, the European Aviation Safety Agency, issued warnings of the problems with this type of engine many months before the near crash occurred. The mistake during the production of the little oil feed stub pipes along with the retroactive fitting error had already happened. However, the exorbitant failure costs and the life-threatening incident itself could have been easily avoided.

Important

The sooner mistakes are detected and remedied, the lower their costs and the security risks. Responsible handling of mistakes reduces their costs. Reporting the mistake aka pointing it out is the bottom line. Only when a mistake is brought to the attention of the responsible party can a successful error processing take place.

A keen eye for detail and a sharp mind Recognizing mistakes together with the correct assessment of their seriousness and the awareness of their consequences are all based on keen observation skills as well as critical acumen. But that is not enough. It is also necessary to keep an open mind while communicating. It is vital to address and point out critical mistakes to stop their further progression and to initiate error processing. Keeping quiet costs time, money and sometimes even human lives. Ignorance, indifference, and carelessness are also serious risk factors. However, open-mindedness regarding mistakes is not as easy as it may sound. We may think: “Oh well, we’re working in an area where mistakes don’t have serious consequences and where security risks aren’t relevant.” Thus we can quickly reduce our sense of responsibility and lighten our load. Open-mindedness is essential for all mistakes that have already occurred and for those, which have not yet happened but are already noticeable:

When you lose the master key

When you provide the wrong information

When you perform a repair incorrectly

When you make the wrong diagnosis

When you mix up the medication

When you forgot to order the materials When you cannot finish balancing the accounts on time

When the loss of an important customer threatens

When a test series threatens to fail

When a close call happens

Are you receptive to mistakes? The following questions will help you to figure out if you are open to mistakes.

Yes No

Do you have a pronounced awareness of mistakes?

Do you have a broad knowledge of potential mistakes in your area of responsibility?

Do you generally have a keen eye for mistakes?

Can you differentiate between critical and noncritical mistakes?

When doubtful in cases of potentially critical mistakes, do you seek out advice?

Are you able to anticipate critical mistakes?

Do you recognize critical mistakes quickly?

Do you report critical mistakes promptly?

Do you discuss critical mistakes?

The more questions you were able to answer with a resounding yes, the more open-minded you are in terms of dealing with mistakes.

Creating transparency Reporting mistakes is vital. It is the key point of error communication: when we address and point out a mistake, we make it transparent. We bring it to the attention of the people in charge. Pointing out mistakes is all about assuming joint responsibility. The aim is to get those responsible on board to minimize the consequences of the mistakes while working together to develop strategies for dealing with the mistakes. Moreover, it is also about the transfer of knowledge so that everyone else can avoid making the same or similar mistakes. Which strengths are needed for reporting mistakes

From an early age onward, we have learned to blame others for our mistakes. In kindergarten, we shouted: “They started it!” At school we stammered with a guilty face: “That wasn’t me.” At home, we quickly glued the broken vase together again and placed it back in its place. So, what about how we act now in our professional lives?

Example: Eddie is worried about the condition of his daughter’s health. He was just on the phone with his wife again who informed him about the latest test results. The blood values do not sound promising! Still thinking of his little princess, he inserts the new housing components and starts the program. He takes a quick look at how the CNC automated machine begins drilling and then continues with the post-processing part of his previous job: making a visual inspection of 150 pieces, filing off the ridges, and so on. When he turns back to the machine, he is shocked to find that it is still running with the old settings. “Oh no, I forgot to change the program. Now everything is ruined!” It is not possible to brush aside this mistake. Eddie is aware of the fact. A short time later, he sets off to find his boss to report the mistake. “Boss, come quickly!” Eddie exclaims. “Check this out, I inputted everything correctly, but the holes are wrong. The machine has gone nuts!” Together they go through the settings and check the results. “Unbelievable, the holes do not correspond to the settings.” His boss frowns. “More trouble with the electronics!” He swears under his breath and calls for the technicians. “And it always happens whenever we have a deadline…” The troubleshooting takes several days. After no programming error can be detected, the electrical equipment and the mechanics are taken apart. Now that everything is screwed back together again, the technicians have come to a surprising conclusion: “Everything is OK!”

When questioned later on, Eddie sheepishly admits that he quickly inputted the correct program right before he brought the alleged machine error to the attention of his boss.

In this case, Eddie did not report the mistake. He did not say something along the lines of: “Boss, something happened to me: I accidentally started the machine with the previous program settings.” Instead, Eddie doled out misinformation: “The machine is acting up!” He not only concealed the actual mistake, but he covered it up. Because of the suppression of facts, it was not possible to react immediately to the problem. As a result, the wrong actions were taken and the amount of damage increased: through days of halted production, the inspection of the machine by the specialist team and the resulting delivery delays. Concealing the mistake, therefore, increased the damage manifold.

The three basic skills

The above examples, as well as our own experiences, show that reporting mistakes is often a difficult task. However, anyone who conceals mistakes and keeps them secret or actively covers them up, not only risks exorbitant extra costs but also takes on potential security risks. One takes on a load of epic proportions. It can result in some sleepless nights, it can cost one’s job, and it can rob any peace of mind left.

On the other hand, those who point out mistakes not only share the responsibility and relieve themselves and their conscience but they actively contribute to the processing and removal of critical mistakes while focusing on quality and safety issues. That is why it is best to choose the direct approach, to get a grip, to overcome our fears and to raise awareness of the mistakes. Thus, we accomplish an important achievement. Anyone who deals with mistakes in an exemplary manner should meet the following basic requirements.

1. Quick recognition: The agent of the mistake recognizes the mistake immediately. Prerequisites for this are a keen eye and an ever-alert mind. Poorly skilled workers do not register mistakes, so they cannot report them.

2. Immediate notification: The person who discovers the mistake makes it visible for all to see, exposing it. Prerequisites are courage and personal strength. Insecure and anxious people shy away from reporting mistakes.

3. Responsible action: Detecting the mistakes shows commitment and proves a sense of responsibility. By reporting the mistakes, a quick resolution can be instigated. The mistakes can be corrected, and their course can be stopped. However, lazy or indifferent employees usually refrain from taking on any additional work. Those who point out mistakes provide a valuable contribution to their company. They do not take the easy route. They do not look away and ignore the problem but demonstrate competence, personal strength, and dedication to the business.

Important

Reporting mistakes is a valuable communication tool for a constructive handling of mistakes. In doing so, mistakes are pointed out, and those responsible are made aware of them.

The responsible parties learn about the mistake and can take actions together with the concerned parties, which limits the sequence of mistakes while preventing repetitive mistakes from occurring down the road. Checklist: How to facilitate reporting mistakes

1. Make sure you have your qualifications such as advanced training, self- study, and professional discussions with more experienced colleagues. This will help you identify mistakes that happen to you or others more quickly and reliably. 2. Make yourself aware of potential sources of mistakes through qualifications, coaching, and quality circles. This increases your attention to critical situations. Thus you can recognize mistakes early on and can even prevent them from happening in the first place. 3. Strengthen your self-awareness and develop personal strengths through personality development, positive reinforcement, and a learning-oriented attitude. This will enable you to cope more effectively with your fears and insecurities while reliably identifying your own mistakes despite perceived embarrassment and shame. 4. As needed, use notification channels in the written form (internal error reporting systems, e-mail) or anonymous error reporting systems (a black box, in-house ombudsmen). This allows you to avoid stressful situations. 5. Find contact persons who are responsible for the area in which the mistake occurred such as a team leader, project manager or quality representative. This will ensure that the information ends up in the right place. 6. Get help from third parties such as your peers, boss, and works committee in difficult cases. This will give you the moral support that you need. 7. Explain objectively what you have noticed or what has happened to you, without sugarcoating it. This will enable a quick fix. 8. Learn from the mistake: Undertake corrective actions and plan preventive measures together with the manager or the team. This will avoid making repetitive mistakes.

2.4 How executives can manage their anger

The reporting of mistakes is the most crucial aspect in the area of error communication. But in practice, dealing with mistakes is often difficult for us. The person who just caused an accident with the forklift, the person who just programmed the CNC automated machine incorrectly and the person who just realized that the series of little oil feed stub pipes were all manufactured with too thin walls, all go to their boss with an uneasy feeling to report their respective incidents. But how does the boss deal with the mistake after learning about it?

Example: Reza gathers something is up when his secretary pokes her head through the door. “Boss, do you have a moment?” she asks sheepishly. “I have something to tell you.” He suspects that he is going to be hit with an inconvenience and his blood pressure starts to rise. “Boss, something stupid just happened to me!” Elena is standing in front of him, nervously scuttling from one leg to the other one while stammering on about the incident. “What, how stupid could you be? You didn’t submit the proposal on time! What do you think we have been working on these past few weeks?! You screwed up everything! Get out! I don’t want to see you again today.” Destructive anger management Fortunately, the days when supervisors could whack their subordinates on the head or slap documents across their faces are over. Nevertheless, the employees still get hit with the brunt of the anger over any mistakes and their costs. It is often all still let out in an unchecked and very emotionally charged manner. “I just can’t control myself when I get angry,” some executives state afterward, full of remorse about their respective tantrums. Others respond with a lecturing voice: “The staff only takes it seriously when I raise my voice. Otherwise, they immediately start to think that they can get away with almost anything.” However, others assert rather self-righteously: “What good does it do to try to be politically correct? Do I now have to bend over backward for everyone else? Does this mean that I actually have to thank my employees for doing such a crappy job?!” Of course, one is annoyed by mistakes as the boss. They create costs along with extra workloads. You can easily lose it. But what is the consequence? Ranting and raving about them will not undo mistakes. Repetitive mistakes are also not avoided by this reaction. Tense and anxious employees tend to make even more mistakes down the road instead of fewer mistakes.

Example: In the future, Elena will think twice about whether or not to report her next mistake. She will speculate about how she can hide her momentary lapse or even actively cover it up successfully. After being privy to the entire fiasco via the open office door, her colleague will also opt for avoiding such a stressful encounter. When she makes her next mistake, she will emulate Elena by keeping her mouth shut.

Managers can be guided either by their emotions or their minds. Losing your nerve and venting about mistakes made by others, provides only short-term satisfaction. However, it causes the circle of trust to be punctured, and employees will henceforth refrain from reporting any mistakes. Keeping one’s anger under control requires inner strength and strategic thinking. Thus, it helps solidify relationships, creating trust even in the most critical of situations while promoting the reporting of mistakes. Emotional intelligence As in so many other areas, managers need to master not only professional but also social skills to deal with mistakes. Building a climate of open-mindedness within the team is of the utmost importance together with a thorough understanding of the subject matter at hand. It is tantamount that the managers succeed in gaining the trust of their employees. Negative emotions such as anger, aggression, frustration, stress, impatience, and arrogance shatter the basis of trust. Building a strong foundation of trust requires emotional intelligence: the ability to understand and guide your feelings as well as the feelings of others. Possessing emotional intelligence does not mean that negative emotions are suppressed or denied. Emotional intelligence is characterized by the fact that negative emotions such as the anger over damages, stress due to extra workloads along with a fear of the reactions from the upper echelons of management are all handled constructively.

Example: Now 55-years-old, Jamal still vividly remembers the slaps in the face he received during his apprenticeship. He also recalls the slaps he distributed as a young foreman. Later on, when Jamal became a master baker, he noticed that this behavior did not sit well with his employees. He proudly discusses his development as a manager: “My eyes were opened during a company seminar about emotional intelligence in management. Until then, I thought that emotions just come and go. However, I then realized that I could also steer my emotions. The mistakes of my employees have always made me boil over. But now I’ve learned to keep my emotions in check and to remain calm. If necessary, I take a 15-minute break to quickly run around the bakery or up the stairwell to the 10th floor of the office wing. It helps work off the extra adrenaline. Then I can concentrate on the factual level again and proceed in a solution-oriented manner. Since then it’s all going really well! The employees know that they can come to me and that we can tackle anything together.”

Tips for reducing aggression There are many ways to reduce anger. Here is a small selection:

1. Take a deep breath or do breathing exercises with special techniques, such as exercises from autogenic training or the Chinese Qi Gong. 2. Relieve your tension through physical activity, by walking around the block or going to the gym. 3. Create emotional distance by postponing the conversation. 4. Create emotional awareness by talking to neutral third parties, such as noninvolved colleagues or a coach.

Responsible executives manage their frustration and stress levels. They do not pretend to be indifferent or happy about mistakes. Often they also express their consternation. The warranted approach is: “Articulate matters instead of just acting out!” Instead of raising your voice, you stay calm: “I realize that I am angry because…” Reporting mistakes as a vote of confidence

For employees, it is necessary to overcome destructive emotions such as fear or shame to report a mistake. For executives, it is crucial to handle their anger and aggression so that mistakes can be reported. When managers can count on the openness and responsibility of their team members and team members can rely on their managers to act respectfully and constructively, open-mindedness towards mistakes can be achieved. Trustworthiness is needed from both sides.

2.5 Positive handling of negative news

Rewarding “the biggest mistake” is something that is up for debate, time and again. Therein lies the hope of creating a more open-minded environment as well as positive attitude towards mistakes within a company. But mistakes are not made intentionally. They are not a conscious endeavor. Employees do not make an effort to make them. Instead, they just happen. Therefore, it is neither necessary nor productive to reward the biggest mistake or to be thankful for it. Showing appreciation for the reporting of mistakes However, mistakes do not report themselves. They are a conscious act and require a specific effort. In a successful Mistake Culture, executives reward this kind of behavior by their employees with the appropriate words. As an expression of appreciation and esteem, the following phrases are suggestions: “Thank you for the info!”, “Good that you came straight to me!”, “Thank you for being so open!”, “Thank you for trusting me!” or “Good to know that I can rely on you.” As a result, executives encourage their employees while promoting a steady flow of information. They reinforce just how important and vital reporting mistakes is to the wellbeing of the company and that this effort is welcomed with an open mind. Important Open-mindedness characterizes companies with a positive Mistake Culture. The speed and reliability with which mistakes reach the responsible party can be used to identify the quality of a successful Mistake Culture within an organization or a team.

The three qualifications for being an effective executive

Welcoming the reporting of mistakes in a professional manner encompasses one of the primary requirements for being a successful manager. An executive demonstrates this expertise if they succeed in entering into a constructive dialogue with the agent of the mistake. Bosses who deal exemplarily with mistakes have three fundamental leadership skills.

1. Understanding and appreciation: Managers who create a calm atmosphere to discuss the issue at hand and who treat the agent of the mistake respectfully make it clear that they know that mistakes happen and cannot be prevented by instilling fear or prohibiting them. They show that they want to deal with the mistake itself instead of blaming the agent for the mistake.

2. Objectivity and solution orientation: Managers who act rationally instead of emotionally, demonstrate a goal-oriented approach. The mistake has already happened. A clear focus is needed now and not the condemnation of the so-called culprit. Instead, the search for causes and solutions is called for, ideally together with the agent of the mistake.

3. A sustainable sense of responsibility: Managers who deal strategically with mistakes are aware of how important it is to report mistakes quickly and reliably. They know that as bosses they have to create the appropriate conditions for a high level of open-mindedness. Moreover, they know that after the mistake is reported, the real work begins: the correction of the mistake and the development of preventive measures for the systematic prevention of the same kind of mistake or a similar one.

Example: Midori enters Daniel’s office in a sweat. “There’s a problem,” she begins. He offers her a seat. “What happened?” he asks. “Tell me about it!” Midori explains how she forgot to factor in the costs for the new laboratory equipment in the annual budget planning due to the craziness of the year-end financial statements. Therefore, the half a million needed was not included in the new annual budget. To help get a better overview, Daniel asks specific questions relating to which device was meant, whether the order has already been placed and what payment terms were agreed upon, and so on.

It really is a most annoying mistake! The parent company did not budget for the urgently needed equipment as the funds have already been allocated. In his mind’s eye, Daniel sees himself working his way through the upper levels of management, possibly all the way up to the responsible CEO. Oh, how mortifying this will be! He quickly banishes such thoughts, takes a deep breath and looks Midori calmly in the eyes: “Thank you for immediately bringing this to my attention!” Midori looks irritated. She was expecting a fine roasting, but Daniel continues. “Yes, it’s not good. But I appreciate that I can count on you and that you always come to me right away when things go sideways.”

Checklist: How to encourage the reporting of mistakes

1. Pay attention to improving the qualifications of your employees, such as through seminars, on the job training, and mentoring. This hones their ability to detect mistakes. 2. Raise the awareness for potential sources of mistakes, such as through schoolings, discussions of mistakes within the team, and quality circles. This increases the attention to detail in critical areas. 3. Make your employees aware of the importance of reporting mistakes, such as through information highways, clear team rules, and learning from their own mistakes as well as those made by others. This will foster a sense of responsibility. 4. Create a constructive team climate, such as through team rules, team development, and team feedback groups. This ensures that team members will find it easier to identify their own mistakes and that the colleagues will react in a supportive and constructive manner. 5. Thank your employees for reporting mistakes through verbal communication, positive body language, and symbolic gestures. This shows that you can handle bad news in a constructive manner and that the reporting of mistakes is desired. 6. Encourage the reporting of mistakes while consistently punishing any forms of concealment or cover-up through clear team rules. This ensures that the employees do not resort to self-preservation tactics but are motivated to point out mistakes. 7. Pay attention to a long-term rectification of mistakes, through specific quality management techniques such as DMAIC or 8D, joint discussion groups, and task forces. This not only corrects the relevant mistake, but it also prevents repetitive mistakes from recurring.

At a glance: When mistakes happen

The longer critical mistakes remain undetected or hidden, the higher and more serious the damage caused by the mistake and its subsequent course. No one likes to make mistakes, and nobody wants to admit to making them. Nevertheless, it is vital that mistakes be pointed out. For mistakes to be reported reliably by their agents, managers need to be open-minded and able to deal constructively with them. In a positive Mistake Culture, executives and employees react to mistakes objectively while utilizing a solution-oriented approach. They treat the agents of mistakes with respect and compassion. 3. ADDRESSING MISTAKES

The mistakes of the people around us annoy us. We tend to resort to negative reactions such as making accusations or sulking in silence. But how do we find the right words to deal with matters when things do go wrong?

In this chapter you will learn:

Why accusations are not helpful How we can achieve our goals by articulating our needs Why consequences are important How to practice critiquing your colleagues or bosses How to alleviate the accusations of others

3.1 Small but powerful: Mistakes in the everyday workplace

Big mistakes are not the only ones that occupy our thoughts and keep us up at night. In daily life, it is often the small mistakes that make us fret and worry. While we can still stay calm and collected when dealing with product and processing errors, we quickly lose our composure when it comes to any behavioral errors. Even if they seem minute, they simply cannot be ignored. They make us boil over and completely lose it. We tend to dismiss behavioral errors. We say: “That’s just the way he ticks!” or “She can’t help herself!” We regard such mistakes as personal weaknesses or quirks, as performance deficits, communication problems or cooperation difficulties. But can they really be considered mistakes?

Example: An insurance clerk, Imani rolls her eyes while venting: “I’m the fool who constantly has to clean up after everyone by putting the coffee cups in the dishwasher, placing the milk cartons back in the fridge, and disposing of the moldy cheese. Never mind what the table looks like when my ‘beloved colleagues’ get up from lunch! It’s so disgusting that you can’t even take a seat or manage to eat anything. It’s nasty!”

The everyday workplace is filled with many little things that irritate us. The colleague in the open-plan office who speaks way too long and loudly on the phone, the colleague who never refills the copy paper, the intern who refuses to knock or say hello upon entering, the team leader who is terribly indecisive, the manager who always parks the company car in the handicapped space, and so on. Is indecisiveness a mistake? Are negligence, rudeness and recklessness mistakes? The ISO 9001 answers this explicitly with a resounding yes. They are all mistakes because this kind of conduct illustrates a “non-compliance with a requirement.” Decisiveness is a basic requirement for managers, constructive communication and cooperation are essential requirements for both employees and executives, while common courtesy is a fundamental requirement for a social coexistence. Silence is not the solution

We are faced with a choice: Do we ignore the mistakes of other people with pursed lips? Or do we tell them how much their mistakes bother us? One thing is sure: if nothing is said, there is no room for improvement. Everything stays the same. Often, other people are not aware of the fact that their behavior is annoying to us and that it is precisely the little things, which irritate us. Therefore, silence is not the gold standard. But we suspect that telling the other person exactly what we feel in the heat of the moment is also probably not the most effective tactic as it only serves to aggravate the situation further. Accusations: Childhood communication patterns In everyday life, we often rebuke other people when we point out their mistakes. We opt for a communication technique that many of us have internalized from our early childhood days. With our parents and close caregivers leading by example, we have seen how (our) wrongdoing has resulted in anger, and the anger has escalated into accusations. Day after day we heard: “You’re so loud all the time!” and “You’re always running inside with your dirty boots!” or “Now you’ve gotten yet another D in math!” However, utilizing such accusations did not help our parents achieve their goal. Instead, those situations resulted in a flood of tears or more acts of defiance. Accusations are counterproductive. They only result in more issues. That is why it is smart to stop in our tracks and check why we are still resorting to the behavioral traits from our childhood. How accusations pile up 1. It is only a small matter. The world has many significant problems to deal with - crumbs lying around in the office kitchen are not an issue. If someone forgets, we will clean up in no time at all. It is but a mere trifle. 2. The situation keeps repeating itself. Of course, we wipe the table the next day as well as the day after and the following week. No problem! Not yet. 3. We do not want to make a fuss. It is not worth it over a few measly crumbs. Not even because of the grease stains. We do not want to be considered petty. However, the inner tension is building up. 4. We focus on the issue at hand. The next day we glance at the table: what a mess! The small matter of the stray breadcrumbs now has our undivided attention. We hone in on the mistake with a magnifying glass. 5. Hostile interpretations crop up. We experience the crumbs as a form of inconsideration and pure insolence. We feel much like the idiot who always gets stuck doing the dirty work. 6. Our anger builds up. It is brewing inside of us, building up to an avalanche of uncontrollable rage. We are sick of being mistreated. We get ready to retaliate. 7. Attack! We are at the end of our rope. We have just about had it. We finally explode and yell: “You’re always leaving such a mess behind!” 3.2 Why accusations fail

Strategically, we are shooting ourselves in the foot by resorting to an accusation. We do not improve the situation, but we actually worsen matters. The other person either shuts down completely or retaliates. We miss the intended goal. Error!

Fight or flight Accusations are experienced as a physical attack on our person. Our archaic conflict strategies are activated with every: “You did this and that wrong!” It all boils down to our innate fight-or-flight response. The symbolic strike is followed by the counter-attack: “But you did this and that!” Or, by the escape route: “Leave me alone!”

Example: Beatrice is fed up: “The ice age is in session at our office! Alex is so inconsiderate! In the wintertime, he constantly yanks the window open. During the summer months, he cools everything down to 17 degrees Celsius. I’m sitting there shivering, but do you think Alex notices this? It doesn’t interest him in the least! I didn’t say anything for a long time, but last week I lost my patience. I finally told him my opinion. But don’t think that helped for a minute! He just called me ‘way too sensitive’ and even ‘downright hysterical’! The second I went out, he turned down the thermostat again.

However, it’s not just the inappropriate tone of voice and body language that turns an accusation into an unwelcome message. The unfortunate choice of words also plays a significant role in terms of adding to the overall negative effect. Every accusation implies a need If we review the grammatical structure of accusations, it becomes apparent that they always bear the same characteristics: The so-called you-messages: you do, you are, you have Generalizations: always, constantly, never

Exaggerations: like in a pigsty, a hundred times Problem focusing: noise, dirt, disorder, failure, annoyance In search of better strategies, communication researchers have realized that accusations are, in fact, hidden wishes. Every accusation contains an unspoken request. The art consists in recognizing the need and articulating it.

Example: His girlfriend irritates Boris: “Natalia is constantly bitching about her work colleagues. She can’t stand that, and she won’t put up with this. If I ask her what she wants, she can’t say!” He pauses. “Typical woman!” he says, shaking his head. “They always know what they don’t want, but never what they actually want.”

Most people know all too well what bothers them, what they consider to be no good, and what they dismiss offhand. It is much easier to remain in the role of the victim and to suffer in silence than to take control of one’s destiny and influence the course of history. Anyone who blames other people for their problems is thrusting the responsibility over to that person. Someone else is always to blame if something goes wrong or if one is annoyed and suffers. But by taking a little more responsibility and decisive action, we can create a more pleasant (professional) life for ourselves. We just have to stop and think to recognize our wishes and needs. The accusation, “You’re always too late!” implies the wish for being punctual. Tucked away in the accusation, “You’re constantly interrupting me while I’m working!” is the request for being able to work in peace. The accusation, “I always have to take care of everything myself!” conceals a cry for help and some support. Based on a few examples, the following chart shows which wishes and requests are implied by certain accusations.

Accusation Implied wish and request

To your colleague: “The letter is still I would appreciate my colleague dropping lying around!” the letter off at the post office asap.

To your colleague: “You drag us I would like my colleague to contribute to down with your bad mood!” a positive work climate.

To your partner: “Everything bugs I would like for my partner to also show you! You’re constantly nagging me!” appreciation for my positive traits.

To your partner: “You never bother helping out with the housework!”

To your child: “You’ve now received the third D in a row!”

To the mother-in-law: “You’re constantly meddling in our relationship!”

To the banker: “You’re giving me some very unfavorable conditions!”

It now becomes rather obvious that reproaches sound not only negative but also contain negative formulations. On the other hand, wishes and requests are formulated in a positive manner and create a positive conversational atmosphere. The following overview clarifies the patterns of accusations and wishes. You will find that they always exhibit the same characteristics.

Accusation Wish

Negative wording Positive wording Problem orientation Solution orientation

Looking back in anger Looking ahead

Aggressive attitude Constructive attitude

Declaration of war Offer of cooperation

3.3 How articulating needs can be helpful

Once the first step has been taken, and the implied wish has been recognized in the accusation, the second step follows suit: to serve the wish on a silver platter so that our opponent graciously accepts it.

The wish on the silver platter Two communication techniques are effective to relay wishes: appeals and I- messages. Appeals instead of orders Appeals are objective demands to others. By stating, “Please do this!” you show what needs to be done and thus set a clear, goal-oriented call to action. A serious to friendly tone is utilized. Unlike when barking orders, “You have to do that!” communication takes place on equal footing. On the other hand, a command expresses a boss and subordinate relationship, requiring unconditional implementation by the underling. An appeal, however, triggers an impulse in the right direction.

I-messages instead of the accusatory you I-messages are deliberately formulated subjectively. You are speaking about yourself while sharing your emotions and relaying your perspective. By doing so, you avoid the “you” which comes across as presumptuous and accusatory. I-messages convey different nuances. The palette ranges from a very friendly to a rather assertive tone. Finding the correct tone of voice It is important to find the correct tone of voice to formulate requests appropriately. In the beginning, it should always be a friendly one: “Please wipe the table after eating.” An I-message then follows the appeal: “I would like for you to clean up the office kitchen.”

However, what should you do if the friendly approach fails and the problem persists? By not resorting to a reproachful tone and continuing to explain the solution in a calm and objective manner even whilst repeating the request, you demonstrate inner strength.

Reiterate your request as to what should be done to get it right in accordance with your ideas. You can also give yourself more assertiveness by resorting to stronger words like using the phrase: “I ask that you clean up the office kitchen!” or “I expect you to wipe the table after dinner like the rest of us!” Both state that this specific area of improvement is of the utmost importance to you. You can communicate wishes and needs in the form of a request, expectation or demand. If you are an executive, you have one more option: giving a direct order or issuing a directive. As a manager, you carry the responsibility for the overall results as well as for your employees. If your various requests, expectations, and demands fall on deaf ears with one of your employees, if the cooperative leadership style repeatedly fails or if there is imminent danger in a delay, it is crucial that you make use of your authority by issuing a clear directive. Sometimes it takes this kind of decisiveness to save a project, a company, the team spirit or even human lives. Step-by-step: Articulating needs appropriately

1. Wish: “Please come to the meeting on time.” 2. Appeal: “I would like for you to come to the meeting on time.” 3. Request: “I ask that you come to the meeting on time.” 4. Plea: “I beseech you to come to the meeting on time.” 5. Expectation: “I expect you to come to the meeting on time.” 6. Demand: “I require you to come to the meeting on time.” 7. Order: “I’m ordering you to come to the meeting on time.”

Important Make sure that you articulate your needs appropriately in both your professional as well as personal everyday life so that your choice of words suits both the situation and the relationship.

It is worthwhile to incorporate additional rhetorical tools and to continue honing your communication skills. Simulate the following example and observe the effect the different phrases have: from the appeal to the order. Initial situation: Your colleague disregards the safety regulations; he does not wear safety goggles while sanding.

How to utilize the different tones of voice

1 Wish:

2 Appeal:

3 Request:

4 Plea:

5 Expectation:

6 Demand:

7 Order:

3.4 Why everything has consequences

Anyone who addresses the mistakes of others in order to complain or criticize is acting in a destructive manner. Aggressive emotions are being played out. It all primarily functions as a personal venting outlet to let off plenty of steam. The other person serves as a lightning rod for the negative emotions.

However, anyone who addresses mistakes to make improvements is acting in a rational and constructive manner.

1. They have a goal in mind and are approaching it strategically. 2. They clarify what the requirements are and what the improvement or solution should entail. 3. They articulate the improvement or solution accordingly and clearly so that it becomes acceptable and understandable to the other party involved. 4. They demonstrate determination by keeping the goal in mind and stepping up their powers of self-assertion if deemed necessary.

In some situations, it may be appropriate to communicate wishes: “I wish that you would bring me roses occasionally.” At other times, it might be better to set expectations: “I expect us to divide the work fairly and squarely.” But what does one do if the various requests and demands fall on deaf ears and if the positive and solution-oriented impulses are not incorporated and implemented? What to do if the expectations and demands are not met? What is important has consequences

Imagine that you are trying to find an empty parking space for more than half an hour. There is no gap anywhere in sight. Finally, you reach a no-parking zone and decide to park here. Upon your return, you discover that you did not get a ticket, much to your relief. What do you do the next time you cannot find a parking space again? Presumably, you think: “I think I will park there again!” After all, parking in the no-parking zone had no negative consequences.

If we have the choice to circle the block for another half hour or to park without any ramifications in the no-parking zone, we will probably opt for the more convenient solution, even though we know we are violating traffic regulations. On the other hand, what happens when the action, in this case, parking in the no- parking zone, has consequences? What happens when you have to pay a fine of 30 dollars for parking the next time? Or even worse, if your car is towed and you can only get it back against payment of 300 dollars? Most likely you will decide against parking in the no-parking zone the next time. It is not only like this when trying to find a parking spot: We weigh the various options in any given situation and choose the one that seems the most convenient.

Important Actions that have consequences impact our decision-making process while actions without any consequences do not affect the choices we make. Mistakes have consequences Even mistakes have consequences. By clarifying the consequences, we can encourage desirable conduct or prevent undesirable behavior.

Needs strategy Consequences

Please always use the safety Otherwise, you will endanger your eyes goggles when welding. and go blind.

Please pay attention to careful hand Otherwise, life-threatening germs will hygiene. spread.

Please finish up the pending order Otherwise, we will not receive the today. delivery on time.

Please be mindful of a collegial tone Otherwise, cooperation issues will occur. in the team.

Please report this critical mistake to Otherwise, this will lead to considerable those responsible immediately. additional costs and security risks.

Positive and negative consequences Consequences are not necessarily linked to mistakes. We can also use them as a control mechanism to influence the behavior of others by offering options. The others thus have choices. You can opt for actions that are beneficial to you or be against actions that are detrimental to you. This approach can be effective in your personal life as a parent towards children, between partners or amongst friends. You can also utilize options at your everyday workplace: as an executive towards employees, amongst colleagues or with business partners. You have two options: you can choose between positive and negative consequences, between receiving a “reward” or “punishment.” By showing the consequences, you are creating additional motivation for meeting the planned objective. Upon goal attainment, either something worth striving for or avoiding an adverse effect is achieved.

Positive consequence Negative consequence

Please study for the exam today. Please study for the exam today. Then we can go on a trip on Sunday. Otherwise, you will have to stay home on Sunday to study.

Please do the shopping. Then I will Please do the shopping. Otherwise, we prepare a delicious meal for us. will be having frozen pizza for dinner.

Please correct the report. Then the Please correct the report. Otherwise, you boss will be satisfied. will be in trouble.

Please clean up the lab by 17:00. Please clean up the lab by 17:00. Then everything will go smoothly Otherwise, a complaint will be filed. during the inspection tomorrow.

Please report any critical mistakes Please report any critical mistakes that that happen to you. That’s how you happen to you. Otherwise, you will have show your sense of responsibility. to expect labor law consequences.

Book this month. Then you will Book this month. Otherwise, the best receive the early bird discount! offers will be gone.

Consider whether positive or negative consequences are appropriate in the given situation. A reward is not always fitting: “If you come to work on time, you will get a bonus.” Punishment is also often inappropriate: “If you make any mistakes, you will get a disciplinary warning letter.”

Important Put positive consequences in place if special services, such as high commitment, positive developments or outstanding achievements can be provided. The better the performance, the higher the reward can be.

Appropriate consequences Be sure to choose appropriate consequences. The ratio between requirement and impact must be correct. “If you manage the final apprenticeship exam with distinction, you’ll get chocolate,” is just as inappropriate as: “If you nail the final apprenticeship, you’ll get a job in management.” Announce consequences that are realistic: “If you serve the guests in a friendly manner, you will get more tips.” Alternatively, realize them yourself: “If we improve our customer satisfaction scores by 15%, I will spring for a fully loaded espresso machine.” Implementing the correct consequences, step by step For consequences to act as a successful control mechanism, the following steps are recommended:

1. Think carefully about whether or not what consequences are appropriate. If you know beforehand that there will be no consequences, then let it be. Anyone who makes announcements and does not implement them lacks credibility. 2. Disclose consequences well in advance so that they can act as a motivating force for the desired result. When consequences occur without any notice, they seem as random as a reward or punishment out of the blue. 3. Give sufficient time for implementation and check if the result has been achieved. 4. Implement the consequences consistently. It is the only way you can remain credible and make sure that the next time you announce the consequences people do not perceive them as empty threats or hollow promises.

3.5 When the hierarchy plays a role

Both in the professional and private world, situations always arise in which clear words are called for, even between the manager and the team.

Example: Thanks to his high level of expertise, Malik has worked his way up to become department head. Leading his team proves difficult for him. He is cautious and wary, shying away from doling out instructions while resorting to the subjunctive instead. References such as “I would be so happy if all the deadlines were met for once,” or “Could someone please take care of the customer complaint?” are duly ignored. Henry realizes that his type of communication is not working and he thoughtfully says: “I’ve always had such an authoritarian boss. That’s why I decided not to become like him. However, this management style is also not effective!”

When executives criticize Managers are responsible for operations running smoothly within their teams as well as for the overall results of the tasks and projects. Addressing mistakes and ensuring a quick turnaround is part of the day-to-day business routine. Only in this way can quality and safety be guaranteed. Executives are also liable for the wellbeing of their employees. It is integral to their job to make sure that all employees act accordingly, thus preventing any mental and physical damage. For this reason, it is also necessary to address any misconduct and to provide for improvements. For executives, the motto should be: “Do not use a sledgehammer to crack a nut!” Most problematic cases can be resolved with a precisely worded request or a specific appeal. However, if the mistake or misconduct recurs, you can resort to expectations. Only very rarely should it be the case to utilize the strongest means necessary by issuing a demand or directive.

Example: A year later, Malik is still considered to be one of the friendliest and most understanding of bosses. Meanwhile, he no longer hides behind his desk and is mocked as a wimp. Instead, Mailk checks how the work in the team is going. He immediately addresses the little things and gives tips on how to improve things. When he realizes that the rules are being ignored, Malik requests a one-on-one conversation in which he clearly states what he expects. He smiles and joyfully relays his personal development: “I was always afraid of the nickname ‘Malik the Terrible.’ But now I’ve become `Malik the Reformer.’ “

Use the table below to test how well you can handle mistakes in a team. Be sure to incorporate the different techniques such as appeals and I-messages all the way from the wish to the directive.

Incident (mistake) Needs strategy

The graphics just received are poorly done and riddled with mistakes.

The report still contains the mistakes that have already been pointed out.

Despite the admonition, the warehouse is still in a constant state of chaos.

An employee is consistently showing signs of hostility towards the new team assistant.

An employee is using an inappropriate tone of voice with a customer. An apprentice is not wearing safety goggles in a critical situation.

As an executive, you are addressing mistakes correctly if you follow these tips.

1. Show appreciation: Treat your employees with respect and understanding by showing an appreciative attitude and using friendly body language, even if they make a mistake.

2. Respond in a timely fashion: Address mistakes immediately in any given situation, unless there is a risk that the employee will be humiliated such as in front of customers or within a team.

3. Friendliness is the best tactic: Choose positive phrases and articulate them as an appeal or a request.

4. Make yourself heard: Be sure to increase your assertiveness as needed if the same mistakes keep occurring.

5. Implement consequences: Check whether you can facilitate the desired improvements with the appropriate consequences (either positive or negative).

6. Request one-on-one conversations: Create room for improvement with a clarifying discussion if your previous incentives remain ineffective (please also consult the following chapter).

7. In the case of imminent danger, immediate action is called for: ​​From the outset, use strong formulations by stating expectations or issuing directives and demands if serious mistakes or risks occur.

When executives make mistakes Not only do employees make mistakes. Even executives make them - often without realizing what has happened. However, little escapes the critical glances of the employees. So what happens when employees discover mistakes made by their bosses? Is it better not to say anything? The motto being: “Never criticize and certainly not in front of the assembled team!” One thing is certain: Executives do not like to be criticized, let alone publicly humiliated. Often they experience this as a twofold declaration of war: as a personal attack and as an attack on their position of authority. However, it is also clear that executives who do not allow any criticism run a high error risk. If only yes-men and yes-women, as well as hypocrites, are surrounding you, an essential corrective is missing. The consequences are wrong decisions and hubris. The relationship between executives and employees has been evolving for the last few decades. In the past, the submission of “subordinates” to the “superiors” was deemed appropriate behavior along with keeping your mouth shut. Today, modern executives and employees expect mutual respect from one another together with a cooperative partnership.

Example: The Korean airline Korean Airways recorded a remarkably high crash frequency for years on end. The black-box evaluations led to the realization that these crashes were not caused by any technical malfunctions, but rather by an incorrect error handling. The deciding factor was the hierarchical relationship between the pilot and the co-pilot. In many of the situations, the co- pilots had recognized the mistakes, but they could not make themselves heard. Asian behavioral patterns such as polite restraint, indirect communication, and the inherent aversion to criticizing their supervisors silenced the co-pilots even in the midst of danger. Ultimately, it cost them their lives together with those of the pilots and passengers.

Power gaps promote silence Power gaps are debilitating for the more open and effective handling of mistakes. Employees who can recognize and address mistakes are needed. On the other end of the spectrum, executives who can accept criticism are required. For this specific purpose, policies under the term “Crew Resource Management” have been developed in aviation to strengthen the self-assertion of the crew, even allowing for the co-pilot to take over the command if necessary. Strong executives appreciate the exacting eye and sharp intellect of their employees. They encourage critical thinking and allow criticism. But they, like all of us, expect to be treated in a considerate and respectful manner. After all, executives are also just mere mortals like the rest of us.

Example: The stress began three months ago. The management had decided to reorganize; the department head is now almost permanently on the road. Many things are left undone. When the boss finally returns, Erol makes use of this window of opportunity: “Ms. Chen, could you please sign my seminar registration form. If I sign up this week, we’ll get a 20% early bird discount.” “Thanks for reminding me,” she says. “Let’s do it!” Liz has also been waiting for weeks to get a signature. Encouraged by Erol’s success, she addresses the oversight of the department head: “Ms. Chen, you still have not signed my request for time off!” Sulking, she adds: “If this is the way it’s going to be, there goes my last bit of motivation!” The boss glares at Liz: “Then we ought to first discuss any further collaboration.”

Often, employees make classic mistakes that thwart a constructive conversation. The failure of the talks can be due to the following reasons: Fear: A common misconception is based on fear. “When I criticize my boss, I have to expect revenge and reprisals. So I better keep my mouth shut!” Subservience: Another misconception lies in a misunderstanding of one’s role. “I’m just a nobody; criticism is not mine to make. I’ve got no say in the matter!” Insensitivity: However, aggressive arrogance is also wrong. “Executives receive extra compensation and perks. As a result, they also have to accept harsh criticism!” It is all about setting the right tone. This also applies to error communication with executives. Being tactful is required in this situation. Check to see how well you succeed in articulating your needs as an employee.

Accusation Needs strategy

Your boss: You say:

Interrupted you again unjustifiably.

Ignored your annual premium.

Did not show appreciation for your efforts.

Does not address the chronic overtime of the employees.

Overlooked important aspects and made a wrong decision.

Remember the tips for executives from the previous section? The same rules apply to the criticism of executives. Even if a hierarchical relationship is present, the same principles apply to (error) communication: reciprocal respect and esteem, partnership communication and cooperation, and consistent solution orientation.

3.6 How to alleviate the accusations of others The needs strategy is an effective tool for overcoming your anger about mistakes and for paving the way to constructive solutions. But, what should one do if other people are angry with us and rebuke us for making a mistake? Taking action instead of reacting

When an accusation is thrown at us, we quickly slip into old patterns. Fight or flight is the innate reaction of our brainstem. We are flooded with adrenaline, our heartbeat rises, and we gather our strength to fight or to flee. Depending on your constitution, nothing would be easier than to retaliate with a series of devastating counterblows or to avoid the unpleasant situation altogether. However, we can also slam on the brakes by not reacting at first and by taking a deep breath instead; pausing for a moment to collect our thoughts while calming down and switching our “rational” caps back on. These steps are necessary to help remind us of the “needs instead of accusations” strategy. It is also helpful when we are accused of making a mistake. Taking the wind out of the sails It’s quite simple: Just turn your needs strategy around in such situations. While you articulate your accusations as needs, ask for the needs of those who are making the accusations against you. Try to decipher the need that is hidden in the accusation of the other party. When someone says, “You never bother with anything!” you can ask: “What can I do to help out?” The question, “What can I do better?” works well for: “I always have to fix your mistakes!” The accusation, “You have produced more scrap, yet again!” can be countered with: “What can I do or what can we do to avoid the mistake from now on?” By inquiring about the needs, you are taking the wind out of the sails of the other party. You are disarming them by paying attention, being open and showing a willingness to cooperate. It signals that you are interested in good performance results as well as good relations and want to contribute to improving matters actively.

Important

Do not let yourself be provoked by accusations. Decipher the needs hidden within the accusation. Thus you demonstrate a willingness to cooperate and present a solution-orientated approach. Use the table below to test how good you are at inquiring about the other person’s needs. Let yourself be inspired by the first three sample answers.

Accusation Needs inquiry

Your reasoning does not make sense! Which part should I clarify?

Your conduct was off while negotiating! What should I pay attention to the next time?

You are evading your responsibility! What needs to be done?

You are using completely outdated materials!

You always take forever to get things done!

You are constantly separating yourself from the team!

You never adhere to the safety regulations! Even in your personal life, it is worth exploring any needs and opportunities for improvement. How successful are you at this with your children and loved ones?

Accusation Needs inquiry

You never have time for me! What would you like to undertake together?

You forgot our wedding anniversary again! What can I do to make up for it?

You don’t love me anymore! How can I prove my love to you?

I always have to take care of everything by myself!

You are always going behind my back! Your kids are always making such a mess!

Did you complete this exercise successfully? Congratulations! You are well on your way! You can overcome accusations, constructively address the mistakes of the people surrounding you and initiate improvements. To boot, you can redirect any accusations concerning your own mistakes in a constructive manner. Tips on how to alleviate accusations:

1. Stay calm. Do not be provoked by the accusation and retaliate. 2. Explore the need for the accusation of the other party with an open mind. 3. Pay attention to the need. 4. Consider if and how you can fulfill the hidden request. 5. Offer an acceptable alternative if you cannot or do not want to fulfill the request.

3.7 When serious grievances occur

Small mistakes are best addressed right away in a friendly, direct and solution- oriented manner. They are addressed under normal circumstances and can even be broached in passing. Articulating needs gives our counterpart a clear impulse for the right action or conduct when encountering small mistakes. There’s no need for: “I’d like to talk to you one-on-one. Can we get together? When do you have time?”

However, we are not just dealing with small mistakes. Sometimes the damage that results from the action or omission of a person is not just anger or stress- related. Occasionally the mistakes of others also cost us a great deal of time and money, or they cause us pain and suffering. The casual approach no longer suffices. Instead, a joint discussion is now required. Such talks are necessary if constructive impulses go nowhere and your needs are not met.

If there are no improvements, because the actual causes were not recognized;

If the problems are so complex that simple solutions will have little chance of success;

If the solutions require more than just goodwill and decisive action; If agreements and a coordinated approach are needed to proceed.

Whether your kids are failing school or the persistent bad habits of a loved one are driving you nuts; an ongoing clinch in the office or the repeated breaches of duty by a colleague are testing your patience; a complaint to a service provider or a medical error is pushing your limits: Sometimes there is no way to avoid speaking our mind and having an eye-opening conversation.

Example: As a businesswoman, Rachel regularly gets legal advice. For years she has a lawyer on speed dial. But when Rachel reviews the official court letter, she is completely taken aback: She has been sentenced to pay the fines! Her lawyer had assured her that she was entirely in the right. As she examines the verdict more closely, she learns that she lost the case due to a procedural error. For days on end, Rachel is tormented by her rage at her lawyer. She wavers between resignation and aggression, between “forget it” and “I sue the idiot!” But finally, she figures out a way: She wants to address the mistake of her lawyer. Rachel takes notes of all of the facts. She weighs in her interests and goals along with the solutions she can envision.

The mistake has already happened. It cannot be undone. But subsequent mistakes can be avoided! Escalating matters through a dispute, a separation, a termination or a lawsuit, will only make things worse and result in even more stress as well as costs. It is definitely worth finding an alternative solution sooner than later. The objective and the subjective levels In the case of serious grievances, emotional issues often complicate greater material damages. In a discussion about serious mistakes, people are up against two obstacles: clarifying the situation and finding an adequate solution while dealing with their own emotions and those of the opposing party.

For the discussion to result in an effective solution, it is recommended to be fully prepared for the meeting and to brush up on your communication skills. It is vital for both parties to discuss serious mistakes with great mindfulness. Checklist: Addressing serious grievances

1. Be thoroughly prepared for the talk. Gather both facts as well as recommended solutions and record them in writing. It will help you to remain objective and solution-oriented in the stressful situation. 2. Formulate the incident as an I-message. Avoid aggressive-sounding you-messages such as: “You’ve done this and that!” Instead, choose conversation-encouraging I-messages such as: “I’ve observed this and that,” or “I’ve experienced this and that.”

3. Stay objective. Refrain from interpretations, pseudo-psychological implications, and judgments such as: “You’re not competent, you’re so irresponsible!” Instead, stick to the facts: “This is what I got from you. It has led to such and such problems while causing the following damage…”

4. Articulate your needs and expectations. Our colleagues cannot read our thoughts. So, state your expectations clearly and explain what you expect from them. Outline your recommended solutions: “I expect an apology!” or “I would like you to make me an offer.”

5. Give the gift of time if necessary. Let the other person have time to fully grasp the situation and to digest the conversation. However, immediately organize the follow-up: “I ask that you, please review my points of criticism and that we continue this discussion in two weeks time to find the appropriate solutions together.”

The sooner the talks are conducted, the more open and constructive they will proceed, and the easier it will be to find a mutually satisfactory solution.

Example: Rachel has now arranged for an appointment with her lawyer. She appears punctually at his offices. Rachel is looking at her documentation and summarizes the story from her point of view: “I’ve been your client for a very long time and I’ve been more than satisfied with your legal advice. But in this matter, something went terribly wrong. Although you said that it was a sure thing, I’ve lost the case. The judgment states that the objection didn’t arrive in a timely manner.” Rachel hands her lawyer the verdict. Then she continues: “It’s important for me to find a good solution here. I would like to keep you as my lawyer, but I don’t want to be saddled with the costs. Would you like to check the facts first, or can we discuss immediately on how best to proceed?”

How to deal confidently with massive criticism Serious mistakes result in great strains not only for the injured party but also for those responsible for the mistake. Depending on the mistake and its consequences, emotional side effects such as self-esteem issues, shame, feelings of guilt and desperation, fear of image or even job loss as well as legal implications, recurring nightmares, and panic attacks can occur.

Dealing with criticism is anything but easy. When confronted with it, we quickly become stressed out and react with archaic behavioral patterns: fight or flight. Ideally, we would prefer to avoid the conversation altogether by refusing to discuss the situation. Or, go into attack mode by defending ourselves via a series of verbal counterblows. But this serves no purpose. It only worsens the conversation climate and blocks a constructive solution.

Even the agents of mistakes can contribute significantly to a constructive progression of the discussion by adhering to professional conversation techniques.

Example: Miguel is an ambitious lawyer. He tends to perfectionism and is accustomed to winning in court. However, now his longtime client Rachel is sitting in front of him. She presents her case. Admitting to mistakes is not something that comes naturally to Miguel. But obviously, a misunderstanding took place within the office organization of his firm. “Thank you for coming directly to me. I understand your frustration and anger. Something went terribly wrong here. It’s clearly our mistake. I’m very sorry about this.”

He notices how a load is taken off both their backs. Together they review the losses, calculating the exact court costs and the legal fees. Finally, Miguel says: “As your attorney, I take full responsibility. I’ll replace your expenses. No lawyer enjoys doing this, but I’ll make use of my liability insurance.” Miguel briefly thinks: “As a small compensation for your time, I’d like to invite you to a nice lunch. Would this be agreeable to you?” Rachel is satisfied. Together they go over all of the remaining details. Then they get around to chatting about this and that. Both are relieved to have mastered this “crisis” so well.

If you are approached concerning a serious mistake:

1. Use active listening: Encourage your counterpart to open up while signaling interest on a nonverbal level. Jot down keywords. It will facilitate listening and show that you are paying attention.

2. Thank the other person: Thank your counterpart for taking the time to talk to you. Or, thank them for their openness, attention, and trust. Consider the critical comments as a vote of confidence and the criticism itself as a gift: “Thank you for coming straight to me!” or “Thank you for telling me that.”

3. Show your empathy: Understand the emotional context of your counterpart and be aware not only of the actual circumstances but also of the affected person with their respective emotions. Summarize your empathy: “I understand your anger, and I would have reacted the same way!” or “I can relate to your fears in this situation!”

4. Express your regret: Avoid blame arguments: “That’s not my fault!” Regardless of whether you are responsible or not, express regret for what has transpired. An apology is still far removed from a confession of guilt. If necessary, show that you have the strength to take responsibility for your actions: “I’m sorry you had so many hassles / such stress/pain / extra costs!” or “I apologize for…”

5. Look to the future and concentrate on improving matters: Try to filter out the needs from the accusation and the suggestions from the criticism. Find out what your counterpart expects of you, what needs they have, how you can meet their expectations, and what would entail an appropriate compensation. Summarize these points at the end: “What exactly do you expect me to do?” or “If I understood you correctly, you would like me to…”

6. Make arrangements: Agree to the proposed solutions, make an acceptable alternative proposal, or negotiate a compromise. Afterward, record the results and any further steps needed: “I now summarize that we have agreed upon the following actions…”

Discussing serious mistakes is all the more productive when the respective parties utilize constructive conversation techniques. These enable the relationship dynamics to be strengthened while realizing satisfactory solutions on the factual level.

At a glance: Addressing mistakes

When the mistakes made by others upset us, we often encounter the agents of the mistakes with accusations. Accusations are counterproductive. They trigger our fight or flight reflexes. They do not contribute to solving the problem at hand. Articulate your criticism as a need. Needs act as a guide, helping the other person find ways to correct mistakes. Identifying and using consequences is an important control mechanism. It encourages the correct course of action and the appropriate behavior. Constructive criticism is respectful, friendly and solution-oriented. It applies to both employees as well as executives. Alleviate the accusations of others for your own mistakes by listening with an open mind, deciphering the hidden needs and finding timely solutions together. 4. DEALING WITH MISTAKES

Simply being able to deal with mistakes in a positive manner is not the end-all way to overcoming them in the long run. Only the appropriate error management will help you get to the root of mistakes systematically as well as to eliminate them permanently.

In this chapter you will learn:

How to figure out the actual causes of a mistake Which effective methods are available for error processing How to successfully learn from mistakes and mishaps

4.1 Fighting causes instead of symptoms

Proactive error management is based on the constructive interpersonal handling of mistakes. Only by pointing them out in a responsible manner and addressing them properly do mistakes see the light of day. Only then will mistakes become visible and revisable. But an open and considerate approach on its own is not enough to do the trick. What is especially needed here is the effective and objective handling of mistakes. It is necessary to deal with the mistake to overcome it.

In search of the causes A human is generally found at the end of an error chain. We are quick to quip: “He or she made a mistake!” But by trying to pinpoint a single person as the underlying cause for a mistake, we usually make it way too easy on ourselves.

Example: Bruno is a foreman in a sizeable metal-processing factory. He likes to complain about the workers: “They simply don’t cut it nowadays.” A mishap has just happened to Ramiro during the electrolytic marking process. A workpiece slipped from his hand and is now badly damaged: clearly a reject. Bruno has a quick solution at hand: “As a cause, I will write down that it’s due to a worker error,” he says. “And as a corrective measure, I’ll conduct a schooling for the workers.” He sternly snaps: “Just you watch out!” He then proceeds to admonish his co-worker: “If this happens to you again, you’re gone for good!”

Companies with an ineffective Mistake Culture, tend to gloss over their mistakes by way of superficial explanations. The meticulous handling of mistakes is not prioritized. Sooner or later, these supposedly timesaving measures will prove their ineffectiveness and strike back. The actual cause has not been identified, and the error will keep recurring.

Although a mistake is often associated with a specific person, its cause is usually not found to be with the agent of the mistake. Here is wherein the error analysis fails, and that is why the corrective actions cannot take effect. The mistake keeps repeating itself while replacing the employee does not bring about any improvement.

Important

A good principle for dealing with mistakes is: “Do not fight the person, fight the mistake instead!” According to quality management experts, 85% of the causes of mistakes lie in the system, and only 15% are due to the employees.

Therefore, a well-founded root cause analysis forms the basis for a systematic error processing. Without knowing the underlying causes, no effective solutions can be developed. However, we often tend to be satisfied all too quickly when utilizing root cause analysis. We are fooled by first impressions and misled by the symptoms, all the while remaining at a superficial level. The 5 Whys (sometimes referred to as the Five Ws and How or 5W1H) can help us to identify the root cause of a problem. The 5 Whys method The 5 Whys is a questioning technique. With it, one can quickly explore the root cause of a problem; thus not only fighting the symptom later on. The procedure is simple: Ask why five times in a row. The other person automatically leads you to the root of the problem through their answers.

Example: Foreman (FM): “Why did you drop the workpiece?” Ramiro (R): “Because the machine mount slipped.”

FM: “Why did the machine mount slip?” R: “Because we only use two loose wooden wedges to secure it.” FM: “Why do we only use two loose wooden wedges?” R: “Because we don’t have fixed equipment here.” FM: “Why don’t we have fixed equipment?” R: “Because no one has looked into this yet.” FM: “Why hasn’t anyone looked into this yet?” R: “Because we never take the time to figure out an effective error shutdown. We only focus on being faster and faster. So, we improvise. But that costs us dearly because then the same mistakes keep occurring over and over again.”

We can see from this example: although the worker has made a mistake, the actual cause of the mistake was misconstrued as a “worker error.”

In most cases, you will get to the root of the problem via the 5 Whys. However, sometimes fewer questions are enough while now and then a few more are required. Often, there are several options that you can pursue. Keep an eye on those choices and investigate them subsequently. Seeking out the causes instead of guilty parties Identifying the culprit is easy but counterproductive. In the above example, a number of people contributed to the (recurring) error: the worker and his colleagues, none of whom called attention to the inadequate workplace equipment; the foreman, who hastily detected a “worker error” and initiated superficial countermeasures; the team leader and the work scheduler, neither of whom followed up with the recurring error and personnel changes. Last but not least: the management, which did not prioritize a long-term error resolution nor provide adequate resources. But should one simply fire everyone in this case? Would that solve the problem?

As already stated: It does not boil down to blame in a positive Mistake Culture. Blame does not play a role in mistakes. It should only be about finding out the actual cause (unprofessional workplace design) and taking lasting corrective actions (fixed equipment). Recurring errors cannot be avoided through superficial schooling or via threats and by instilling fear, but only through significant improvements. The cause-and-effect diagram

The cause-and-effect diagram, also called the fishbone or Ishikawa diagram, is another tool that provides a valid root cause analysis. Cause and effect in error processing In a systematic root cause analysis, you work your way through the so-called influencing factors.

4M: In the simple variant of the fishbone diagram, you only focus on the four key influencing factors: Material, Machine, Method, and Manpower. 8M: In the detailed version of the fishbone diagram you expand the 4M by adding four additional groups. They are: Management, Measurement, Money, and Milieu (Environment).

This will enable you to focus your attention on the various areas that may be relevant to the possible causes of the mistake. It is crucial that you review all the potential error causes.

Example: A software development team has been in trouble for a while. The tester Farid is at the center of attention. He is considered to be the culprit for the consistently missed deadlines. Indeed: the work keeps accumulating around him. The others mockingly call him “our bottleneck.” Sven, the development manager, bids everyone to attend an error analysis meeting for the first time. He draws a fishbone diagram on the flipchart and explains the procedure.

The brainstorming gets off to a quick start: “I detect a man-related cause. We have five developers, but only one tester.” “And I see one in management: we have tight schedules without any buffers.” “I detect another issue in (project) management: in the beginning, the tester has nothing to do. But in the end, everything comes together and lands on his desk.” A colleague continues: “I would like to state for the record that regarding our process, the developers do a rush job and let the tester figure out the various bugs. However, that’s not his job.” More insights follow suit: “I also see a cause within our team. The constant teasing of the tester is not exactly helpful, but rather demotivating!” Farid then adds his two cents: “A clear cause is also to be found with our machines in our technical equipment. Due to the many different tests, I have to repeatedly assemble and dismantle as well as rearrange the testing equipment. We may save on the equipment upfront, but it ultimately costs us a great deal of time later on!”

A mistake indicates that something is wrong. Often the causes are manifold. Do not ask: “Who made the mistake?” The search for the guilty party only leads to acts of punishment and is detrimental to the process. It is much better to ask: “What led to the mistake?” This question guides you to the causes. Only by understanding the root causes will you be led to finding the right solutions.

Important Treat not only the symptom but also the underlying cause. Only then will the symptom itself disappear.

4.2 How to handle mistakes systematically

Often, we tend to act too hastily when it comes to mistakes and problems. Way too often, we believe that the mistake or problem is not worth the extra effort or that we cannot afford to deal with it now, so we postpone it for later. But what happens then? We lose sight of the matter until the next mistake reminds us that we overlooked something pretty important. Error correction as an investment in the future Diligent error correction is definitely worthwhile. Remedial measures reduce the error rate and therefore the costs of mistakes. With every mistake we can avoid, we save on expenditures and effort we would otherwise have spent. It all adds up. Error correction is thus an investment in the future. We invest time and money to prevent the mistake from recurring.

Important

The more frequently a mistake occurs (probability of occurrence) and the higher its costs or security risks (significance of the effects), the more worthwhile it is to instigate a long-term error correction. Systematic error correction

A systematic approach characterizes the effective handling of mistakes. You can do it on your own if you have the necessary skill set. However, you can also take the required steps with a handful of specialists or with your entire team. It is important to be clear about the initial situation and the error causes from the outset before starting a systematic approach. An effective root cause analysis already indicates the points of reference for making the necessary improvements. Once you have defined and implemented the corrective actions, it is vital that you also monitor their success. Step-by-step: Correcting mistakes

1. Error description Write down the most important facts about the mistake: Where did it occur? What are its characteristics? How can it be quantified? What effect does it have? Example: A workpiece has fallen off the workbench during the electrolytic marking process. The scrap costs are circa 300 euros per piece with a recurrence factor of about 2 to 3 times per month.

2. Immediate measures Contain any successive error sequences: Which immediate measures must be taken to prevent an escalation of the problem or damage? Example: Scrapping of the workpiece, immediate subsequent production, and use of outside help to secure the piece of machinery

3. Root cause analysis Identify the main causes: What has caused the error to occur? What are the key outcome factors? Example: temporary workplace, lacking the proper equipment

4. Corrective actions Define the remedial measures: How can the current mistake be corrected? What else can be done to avoid the same or any similar mistakes? Example: placing an order for a fixation device, creating an efficient workplace for marking the machinery, and updating the team

5. Effectiveness check Monitor the successfulness of the measures: Could the mistake be managed and a recurrence prevented? Are further improvements needed? Example: analysis and evaluation of the new process, error summary list

Methods from quality management Error processing is a question of attitude. If you do not prioritize the process of error correction, you will never find the right time. But high error awareness on its own does not get the deed done. You also need the right tools. With higher qualifications and more effective methods, you will also achieve better results. There are a few methods utilized in quality management which have proven to be extremely useful for managers and quality managers relating to error processing. A detailed description of these particular methods would go beyond the scope of this guide, so here is a brief overview of the most important methods instead.

Risk analysis: It is used to identify and assess risks. It is a preventative method which ascertains error risks before the mistakes are made. The risk is identified, analyzed, evaluated and controlled with the appropriate risk management. Potential risks should be perceived or prevented through preventative measures as well as reduced or passed on to third parties. FMEA:

The Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is used to explore, reduce or prevent potential errors in products or processes before they occur. It therefore also qualifies as a preventative method. Error risks are first collected and then evaluated according to their probability of occurrence, their likelihood of discovery as well as their significance and severity. All of this determines their risk priority for further action. 8D report: The 8D report was created primarily for handling complaints, but it has proven useful for dealing with more complex problems and unclear solutions. It is a reactive method and is implemented once the mistake has already occurred. A team works their way through the 8 disciplines via process steps.

D1: a team is formed D2: the problem is described D3: containment measures are determined D4: root causes of the error are analyzed D5: permanent corrective actions are determined D6: the permanent corrective measures are implemented and validated D7: precautionary measures are set up to prevent recurrence D8: team achievements are honored and celebrated after a satisfactory closure DMAIC:

Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. This method is used to improve and optimize products and processes. The first phase involves defining the problem and the various requirements. Next up: measuring the data, followed by analyzing the findings from the measurement phase to determine the root causes of the error. The fourth phase involves addressing and eliminating the root causes of the error by coming up with possible solutions and implementing them. The final phase consists of controlling and maintaining the improved process or product and its future performance. However, a single action is not enough. It is crucial to keep identifying mistakes and opportunities for improvement consistently and to undertake the necessary improvements. This reduces error rates and their costs while increasing the overall quality and productivity. Continuous improvement

William Edwards Deming, one of the founders of quality management, developed a tool for continuous quality improvement: the Deming cycle or the PDCA cycle. The Deming cycle consists of four phases for carrying out change and improvements: Plan-Do-Check-Act. But with the completion of the last phase, the undertaking is not over as it simply enters the next round of revisions. Thus rush jobs, and zigzagging paths are averted. Instead of superficial “activism,” one keeps alternating the planning, review and evaluation phases. The Deming cycle is just like a continuous improvement circle with no end, and it should be repeated over and over again. It may sound somewhat dry, but it results in more rapid progress during the implementation phase. The Deming cycle

“Plan” includes identifying where there is room for improvement, the analysis of the current situation as well as the development of a new concept together with the participation of the affected employees.

“Do” refers to trying out or testing the new concept while optimizing it via the means readily available (such as using temporary equipment) at a single workstation or as a small-scale study.

“Check” entails the careful examination and review of the small-scale study plus processes to check if the improvements have been realized successfully. Positive results will enable the introduction of the optimized methods on a grand scale.

“Act” means that the new standard will be widely adopted, codified and regularly audited for compliance. This “action” can involve large organizational activities as well as substantial investments.

In effect, the Deming cycle is not a four-step method, but one ongoing loop. It means that the last phase “Act” is again followed by the first phase “Plan” and so on. The new concept has been implemented, and now further improvements need to be realized. The wheel keeps turning into the next round. With each round, you are taken one step further: fewer mistakes, lower error costs, less stress, more quality, more safety, more productivity, and more success.

Example: The software development team is mighty pleased with the workshop results. The fishbone chart has given them many new insights into the underlying causes. Thanks to the careful analysis, they have also been able to come up with many good ideas for further improvements during the brainstorming session. Sven, the head of development, summarizes the additional steps needed to move forward according to the Deming cycle: “First, we work on our concept for the new processing techniques. For this, it is necessary that we fine-tune our ideas for improvement even more. Once the plan is clear, we test the new processing sequence. We try it out via a little job. It will give us the necessary insights. Thus we can see if the plan works while limiting the risk at the same time. As soon as the order is completed, we will evaluate the new development process: If the results are positive, we will make the new process our standard one. We will then apply it to all of our projects.” Sven is satisfied and smiles: “Thanks for all of your great contributions! I am sure that we can now reduce the stress factors and meet the delivery deadlines!”

Important

Anyone who is satisfied solely by error correction is fixated on the short-term results. Only the mistake itself is corrected. When a fire breaks out, merely the fire itself is extinguished. However, responsible parties and organizations also deal with the issues of fire safety. They do not just correct the mistake; they put remedial measures in place to prevent the recurrence of the same or similar errors.

4.3 How to learn from mistakes as a team

It is said that: “Stupid people keep making the same mistakes over and over again while smart people keep making new ones.” Learning from our mistakes is a sign of intelligence. We thus avoid repetitive mistakes.

Example: The CEO of a medium-sized pharmaceutical company, Omar states proudly: “We have a very effective Mistake Culture here.” He smiles contentedly. “I would like to specifically point out our 12 product managers. They all make mistakes, but they only make the same kind of mistake once. Everyone learns from his or her mistakes! The same mistake never happens to them again.”

Without a doubt, there are a lot of smart managers working in this company. But there is a noticeable problem: they are not an intelligent team, they do not form a learning organization. All the organizational members only learn from their own mistakes. It is often said: “Experience is a hard teacher.” But if we only become wiser through our own mistakes, that is a painful, expensive and challenging path to follow. We can glean knowledge and gain wisdom much more easily and intelligently if we also learn from the mistakes of others. We thus do not have to suffer through those mistakes and their consequences ourselves. For this reason, it is essential that we not only learn from our own mistakes but also let others share our insights to benefit together from our own mistakes and those made by other people. In these cases, mistakes not only create costs, but they also prove to be useful and bring about certain advantages. Error meetings Within teams, it is perfectly fine to call for last-minute meetings or morning briefings to quickly pass on information about a mistake and how it is being dealt with besides holding the regularly scheduled team meetings.

Example: Omar has decided to transform his firm into a learning organization. Not only does he want smart managers, but he also wants intelligent teams. Therefore, error correction is now given top priority on the agenda of the monthly management meetings.

“Today, I’d like to focus on the topic of drug mix-ups during our error discussion. As you know, there is a shortage of staff in hospitals and nursing homes. Being pressed for time often results in the staff getting the medications confused, especially if they look alike in terms of the packaging or their descriptions. Today, I’d like to discuss with you what actions we can take to increase patient safety.”

Discussing mistakes in meetings is useful for passing on error insights as well as for dealing with mistakes as a team. The steps are always the same: Either the existing results of the error causes and planned corrective actions are communicated, or the findings are figured out together as a team.

The course of an error meeting

Description of the mistake: an overview of the mistake, error detection, its effects and consequences such as medication mix-ups

Root cause analysis: to elaborate on or point out the different influencing factors and to understand the circumstances, such as careless mistakes and similar-looking or sounding drugs due to specific corporate identity requirements

Remedies: to develop or illustrate ideas and measures for improvement, such as creating concepts for packaging sizes and shapes, redesigning graphics and color schemes

Next steps: to specify and agree on a further course of action such as acquiring additional expertise by conducting specialized research and interviewing experts as well as by forming a design team and through marketing activities

During the joint meeting, all the team members will be made aware of the specific mistake. They will learn where and how the mistake occurs, what causes it and what its effects are. However, they will also learn how to recognize the mistake at an early stage, what immediate measures to take and what corrective actions to pursue to prevent repetitive errors. Accompany learning processes

It is often not enough to be aware of mistakes, error causes and improvements to create lasting changes. Old patterns and habits often prevent mistakes from being overcome and replaced by more effective procedures.

Example: Marisol was recently promoted to general manager of a hardware store. She now has a clear picture of the work processes and the team. Above all, she sees an urgent need for action in the area of sales talks. It seems that her specialized salespeople do not enter into a dialogue with the customers. Instead, they tend to embark on extended monologues. During these “consultations” they list numerous technical details. As a result, the customers feel completely overwhelmed. It is rare that they ever end up buying anything. From the store manager, Marisol learns that the sales team has already been trained several times in the various questioning techniques, but these skills have not been readily accepted and integrated into their behavioral repertoire. Therefore, Marisol decides that it is time to learn together from the mistakes as a team.

However, the will to learn from mistakes is often not enough to create lasting improvements. It also requires sound practice to make that what has been learned second nature.

Prof. Fritz Oser and Dr. Maria Spychiger, two Swiss educational scientists and psychologists, have put together a list of recommendations on how to firmly anchor the new knowledge and right course of action. These suggestions can also be adapted for companies. How to learn from mistakes together

1. Focus on a specific mistake: select a particular error and turn it into a change project, become aware of the error consequences, and define the goals. For example: improve conversation skills, transform a monologue into more of a dialogue

2. Identify the error situations: address current error cases, potentially interrupt the work process, prioritize it, and devote time to it. For example: discuss the existing sales pitches, practice questioning techniques, develop improvements

3. Provide clarification: comparisons of wrong vs. right or worse vs. better, show differences and facilitate comprehension. For example: the effect of monologue or dialogue at the relational level, customer satisfaction, review the purchasing decision

4. Anchor the knowledge: create reminders, develop memory strategies, and use tools. For example: reiterate core topics in meetings and design a poster that reads: “Lead by asking questions!”

5. Practice the new techniques: provide training opportunities, create various training situations, strengthen routines, and practice the right course of action. For example: discuss case studies, practice role-play and apply the training to customer meetings

6. Strengthen self-assessment: create evaluation criteria and promote self- assessment as well as self-control. For example: conduct feedback and reflection rounds, evaluate own sales pitches according to a points system

7. Identify progress: make progress visible, point out any relapses, give encouragement, and reward achievements. For example: give ongoing feedback, take stock on a monthly basis, and adjust the bonus to reflect the performance

8. Ensuring a sustainable implementation: Refresh and update what you have learned as needed and ensure that it is consistently applied. For example: monitor the implementation, supervise the sales talks, and continuously develop improvements

Important

An ancient proverb states: “He who works alone adds. He who works with others multiplies.” This saying also applies to learning from our mistakes. Those of us who become all the wiser on our own, end up paying a high price for this newly gained insight and knowledge. On the other hand, those of us who also learn from the mistakes of others, reach the intended goal much more easily and quickly.

4.4 Establishing a culture of learning from our mistakes

Mistakes accompany our actions. Mistakes happen, and they will continue to happen to us. That is why it is so important to learn from our mistakes to avoid repetitive errors, to become even better, to ensure more quality and safety. Time after time, over and over again. Throughout this booklet, the many practical examples from the everyday workplace have demonstrated how to avoid incorrect and ineffective handling of mistakes as well as what constitutes correct and effective handling of mistakes. Simply ignoring mistakes and brushing them aside is not the answer. The mistakes will keep recurring, time and again. They will continue to cause problems, extra efforts, and more costs. To get all riled up about mistakes is also not exactly helpful. Charges, accusations, penalties, and the search for guilty parties all only serve to block dealing with mistakes in an active and open manner. By staying calm and respectful around the agents of the mistakes and by taking an objective and solution-oriented approach, a positive Mistake Culture is established. If you recognize mistakes quickly and reliably, assess them correctly and handle them well, you improve your skills as well as your performance levels. In turn, this results in more success for yourself and those surrounding you, both in your professional as well as personal life. You achieve better results. You reach your intended goals more easily and quickly. You score direct hits instead of misses. You have learned to learn from mistakes. You have become all the wiser. You now know what it boils down to and how it works. Now it is up to you to implement this knowledge, to live it. As Goethe said: “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”

At a glance: Dealing with mistakes

Mistakes have specific causes. It is important to investigate these thoroughly to permanently correct mistakes. Those who only fight the symptoms of mistakes ultimately fail.

The more frequently a mistake occurs and the higher its costs or security risks, the more worthwhile it is to implement systematic error correction.

A methodical approach guarantees that goals are reached more quickly. Error management techniques support efficient and effective error correction.

Error discussions promote learning from mistakes. They ensure that both the agent of the mistake as well as the entire team becomes all the wiser and thus repetitive errors are avoided.

A positive Mistake Culture does not simply appear. Both employees and executives work together as a team to build and strengthen it. Dejan Stojanovic, Guest Author

FAILURE: THE MOTHER OF INNOVATION

1. What is Innovation?

In this age of global digitalization and the fast-paced evolution of information technology, innovation has become a buzzword that many companies like to glorify. Corporate leaders often claim that innovation is one of the keys to a successful business. But if you ask them to define the key requirements for being innovative, you may find their answers to be inadequate. It becomes obvious that people can view innovation from many different perspectives. Associating innovation with invention is a common misconception people have. This is quite understandable as, at first glance, these terms conjure up similar images. In order to shed some light into dark corners, it is important to clarify the difference between these two words: According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, invention can refer to a type of musical composition, a discovery or any product of the imagination. Innovation, on the other hand, is a device or process originated after study and experiment, usually something which has not previously been in existence. To help find consensus on a simple definition we can share as a solid basis for future conversations about innovation, I offer the following interpretation:

Start with an idea, a unique discovery. An invention is an idea that has been proven feasible. An idea which is not only proven feasible but is executed, adding value for one or more stakeholders, is an innovation. For example, voice communication over long distances, using electricity, was an idea. The first telephone was an invention that proved the idea could actually work. The first cellular telephone was either an invention or an innovation, and the first smartphone was an innovation building on the earlier inventions.

While in many companies and organizations the CEO sets the conditions that encourage or limit innovation, what sparks innovation can come from many sources. If the conditions are right, architects, product managers, account executives, and members of any team in the organization can start or contribute to a wave of innovation. They look inward at processes and products to see how to make things better, faster, or more cheaply. They look outward at what competitors are doing and what the market demands. However, while companies try to be innovative, they can overlook an important detail: it’s not about using buzzwords or mastering the marketing flavor of the week. Ultimately, innovation is all about delivering what users want and need. As the American-Austrian leadership and management expert Peter Drucker emphasized: “The purpose of a business is to create a customer. The business enterprise has two, and only two, basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.”

Creating potential value from an idea can often be a long journey. Organizations, from businesses to civil societies, need to create an environment and infrastructure that foster creativity. A key is helping every member of the organization (every citizen in a country and every worker in a company) feel that they can encourage new ideas and that it’s safe to share with everyone else both their successes and their failed attempts. This is crucial for a nation’s sustained economic growth, for a team’s success in working together, and for a company’s ability to adapt to changes in the market.

Important:

Creativity is thinking up something new. Innovation is implementing something new by experimenting. To experiment you have to take risks and be able to fail.

2. Corporate Innovation

Example: Did you know that YouTube, in its earliest days, was not a success? It was far from becoming what it is today, a highly successful video streaming platform and the most used search engine after Google.

YouTube actually started out as a dating website, a platform for users to upload short videos describing themselves and their ideal partner, and to rate other people’s attractiveness (kind of like Tinder 1.0.). The site’s slogan proclaimed this: “Tune in, hook up.” Realizing that the dating-site model was failing, the two founders did not give up. They adapted their existing platform into an innovative infrastructure and venue for sharing personal and corporate videos. YouTube changed its strategy, changed its very ecology, and gained worldwide popularity. It became the video-sharing empire that Google acquired for $1.65 billion in 2006.

So, what does it take to build an innovative company? According to Jeff Bezos, CEO at Amazon, one of the most innovative Silicon Valley companies, and maybe the most successful entrepreneur in the world, “You need to have a high tolerance for failure. If you want to do new things, you have to be willing to fail.” Convinced that his company’s growth is built on its failures, Bezos recently said, “If you’re going to take bold bets, they’re going to be experiments. And if they’re experiments, you don’t know ahead of time if they’re going to work. Experiments are by their very nature prone to failure. But a few big successes compensate for dozens and dozens of things that didn’t work.” In contrast to the Silicon Valley mindset, and whether we like it or not, Europe’s inability to deal with failure has attached a stigma to errors. A study published by GLOBE (Global Leadership & Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) shows that strong economic players in the European Union, such as Germany and even Austria, do their best to avoid uncertainty, acknowledging that they have no “open error culture.” Even more worrying, a recent report of the Hernstein Institute for Management and Leadership shows that a quarter of the top managers who were interviewed freely admit to seeking out guilty parties in error situations, rather than discussing solutions to the situation in an objective manner. Seen from this angle, it is more than just surprising, even infuriating, that 75% of the top managers in the study believed in having a transparent and open approach to mistakes, while only 50% from lower management agreed. Unfortunately, the report failed to explore employees’ beliefs. I suspect that the staff experienced an even lower actual rate of support for an open error culture than what even the most cautious managers claim. If you’re an employee reading this book, ask yourself: Do I have the freedom to go to my boss and share a failure? Perhaps even exaggerating slightly, would you receive any recognition for that? If you’re not an employee, when was the last time that you celebrated learning from a failure your team experienced?

Example: Here is the “IBM $10 million education story”: IBM had survived the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the economic boom after World War II, a government project, worth almost $10 million, was on the table. Long story short: IBM lost the bid because of a salesman failure. Tom Watson Jr., back then the president of IBM, called the sales rep to his office to discuss the failed development project. Expecting to be fired, the salesman presented his letter of resignation. Watson just shook his head: “Why would I accept you leaving when I have just invested $10 million in your education?” We can turn this story around as we like it. But we do know this: out of the Fortune 500 firms in 1955, only 12% remained on the list in 2016. IBM is among the 12%.

You might think that an absolute intolerance of failure could be a positive attribute in companies, as many of them invest an immense amount of effort and money trying to imagine what could happen in advance besides running intelligent, real- time analytical processes to avoid potential mistakes. This might be a reason why German and Austrian organizations and companies, in particular, are very effective in error prevention.

However, my observation has been that if you constrain creative movements with operational processes, you’ll get the results the processes demand, but no creativity or innovation. Many examples show what happens when failures continue to occur: that’s where the trouble starts. Because of the inability to deal with errors objectively, speaking about them rarely occurs, if at all. At my Fuckup Night events in Vienna, a platform where we share business failures openly and celebrate the lessons learned, I have met company representatives who insist on their standpoint of not accepting any failures at all. What kind of self-delusion is this?! I’ve worked with people who therefore are afraid of sharing their knowledge about errors and keep what they know to themselves. This behavior both prevents the detection of failures at an early stage and blocks a pragmatic process toward innovation. Even worse, nobody learns when nobody dares to admit failure.

Example: A good example of a company that evaluated bad-performing projects in time and changed direction towards a more successful outcome is BMW. It supported startups with seed capital through iVentures, but BMW soon realized that startups need a space to test their products and services. So they founded the BMW Startup Garage.

The BMW iVentures started as a classic accelerator arm of the company for startups BMW invested in or bought. BMW tried to impose its traditional company culture on the startups and found that the startups were not flourishing. So the company switched to a more flexible strategy and positioned the BMW Startup Garage more or less as a Venture Client unit for startups. BMW Group becomes an early stage customer of each startup when its product, service or technology is not mature yet but is ready for use. The parent company is each startup’s first and most important stakeholder client, delivering both funding and real-world feedback.

Besides Europe’s general inability to deal with failures, the GLOBE study I mentioned shows that Europe’s most pronounced cultural value is Performance Orientation. At work, compassion is low and interpersonal relations are straightforward and stern. The Anglo-American sphere, in contrast, seeks success by a more humane approach in which they try to nurture their staff in a collaborative work environment where failures are tolerated. One might wonder how we can call the US business environment, with its well- known hire-and-fire mentality, human-oriented. It’s true that American management culture is profoundly influenced by an urgent performance principle based on a fluid labor market, very weak dismissal protections and poorly organized advocacy groups. Ultimately, American professional workers experience widespread insecurities, which results in increasing cooperation with their fellow workers. This cooperation partly compensates for these negatives. In contrast to the US, European countries are less familiar with these kinds of professional insecurities. The need to avoid risk and control uncertainties was resolved by governmental controls such as employee protection rights. The European “tough on the issue, tough on the person” leadership approach might have its benefits, like the economic achievements in the second half of the 20th century. However, it does not seem to be a promising approach to meeting the challenges of globalization in the 21st century. In this world, where progress can’t be secured with the reproduction of existing goods anymore, a bad error culture can be fatal. Innovation can’t happen without trial and error, but European industrial society deals poorly with failure. To realize that something went wrong calls for efforts to understand the mistake and make changes that may lead to a better outcome the next time. Many people resist making those efforts. The reality is that organizations often get stuck playing it safe. In this age of hyper-competition, safe might be considered the new risky. As the old barriers to competition are disappearing, innovation does not mean doing the same thing a bit better, eventually. Tobias Dahlberg, founder and CEO of Wonder Inc, described it very well: “Innovation means exploring for new knowledge and exploiting existing knowledge.“

Example: For most of the 20th century, Kodak was the dominant producer of film for still and movie cameras. Kodak’s collapse and eventual bankruptcy in 2012 is one of the best lessons about what happens when you stop innovating. Although the first portable digital camera was invented in 1975 by one of Kodak’s engineers, Steve Sasson, the company missed opportunities to position itself in the world of digital photography and couldn’t transform itself into a digital company.

Kodak management’s inability to innovate and view digital photography as a disruptive technology becomes obvious when you read the comment made by a Kodak executive to Sasson: “That’s cute - but don’t tell anyone about it.” Kodak definitely started out as a great explorer but died when it got stuck in exploitation.

If prominent organizations, on which the success of the previous few centuries has been based, wish to keep their leading roles shaping the future (or even, for some of them, to survive), they will need to stretch out and explore without losing the balance between safe bets and risky shots. A typical mistake organizations make nowadays is to respond to the permanent pressure of innovation by putting all their hopes on one idea. This was the cause of a failure presented by Rudy Laddaga, a guest speaker at the Fuckup Nights in Vienna. Rudy founded the startup “U-Tour,” providing a multimedia app for guided tours in Mexico in 2007. He described his failure as “putting all eggs into one basket,” resulting in a huge risk that ended up with him losing everything. Today, he’s successfully working on projects related to education and 3D printing, making sure resources are not over-concentrated on a single objective, and now more willing to accept deviations from the business plan to help avoid potential failures.

Despite endless examples of failure, many organizations continue clinging to their business plans and allowing insufficient room for creative development. A successful company needs a way to translate innovative ideas into something that creates value for the company and its customers. Companies and their innovative leaders must encourage a culture of experimentation. It is true that experiments bear the risk of failure by nature, but businesses must educate their people to use failures as a way of gaining valuable insights and as steps along the road to success.

Important: To be truly agile, we must give people the freedom to innovate, the freedom to experiment, the freedom to succeed. That means we must give them the freedom to fail, too.

Innovations might be subject to risks, but failures that don’t lead directly to the desired result remain important steps along the way, seen as a chance to review the organization’s strategy or project plan.

Having the freedom to understand and learn from what went wrong is crucial to the improvement of products and services. I am convinced that people who are permitted to make mistakes and learn from them perform much better. Why? This could be because they not only discover new ways to complete a task but also reflect on failures to understand what actually went wrong. The organization willing to experiment with many ideas will most likely have many failures. Nevertheless, the chances are high that this will help deliver the ultimate breakthroughs the organization seeks to achieve.

Example: Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda Motor Company, once said, “Many people dream of success. Success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection. Success represents the one percent of your work that results from the 99 percent that is called failure.”

Meaning: Failure and error tolerance lead to greater creativity and innovation, which is more profitable over time.

Traditional corporations in Europe took a major role in rebuilding the economy after the war years, creating wealth and value for society. However, this success came with a price tag. The past heroes became excessively organized, slow and too conservative for today’s world. Companies that want to foster innovation, digitalization and other disruptive transformations today need to understand that successful change starts at the very top of every organization. It’s the leader’s responsibility to implement new ways of thinking and acting. A good leader is not only one who knows the way, but also walks the way and shows the way. For some reason, admitting that somebody from a lower level could have a better idea or know something better, maybe something that the top management has missed, is rarely acceptable. But shouldn’t it be the exact goal of every company: to be filled with smart people, employees who may potentially know more than a leader because of their skills and experience? Supporting people as they try out new ideas by running autonomous experiments is what creates a positive error culture and fosters innovation. Indeed, autonomy can sometimes carry the risk of less efficient work, but it can equally unleash greater creativity.

Important:

A positive error culture is the only way to diagnose errors and fix them efficiently. It is the only way to create effective methods for failure prevention in the future and hence maintain a competitive position. 3. Startup term “Pivot”

The entrepreneurial mindset has its roots in ancient history when people used to make a living out of trading materials and other goods with each other. Today’s entrepreneurs mirror their historical counterparts in terms of enthusiastically following a vision, taking risks to create value. Entrepreneurs are driving innovation and have become important players in job creation and economic growth for any country. The startup world is not only known for its visionary thinking and innovative actions with the “never give up” attitude. What makes this world fascinating is also the way entrepreneurs deal with failures. Founders understand the importance and necessity of failure, and before they even consider shutting down completely when a failure looms, entrepreneurs are likely to hustle, bootstrap, seek solutions and, in many cases, pivot. The entrepreneur’s ability to adapt to market and customer feedback and to find new solutions is what makes their mindset so unique, especially after their initial assumptions were realized as being completely wrong. Why? There is a famous quote from boxer Mike Tyson: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Hence, the entrepreneurs feel the result of being punched in the face as an opportunity, rather than as punishment for failure. A pivot, therefore, starts with “Oops, the assumptions didn’t match reality.” The entrepreneur thought they knew everything about the target market, the customer or the product and some key thing turned out to be ridiculously wrong. When your initial business model stops working, you need to find another way to survive quickly and execute it successfully. That’s a pivot. If you don’t do it successfully… Then, that’s a fuck-up.

Example: One of today’s most exciting personalities in the Austrian startup ecosystem is Oliver Holle, Founder and CEO of the Venture Capital Fund Speedinvest. When I invited him to share his business failures and the lessons learned at Fuckup Nights Vienna, he agreed without hesitation. He offered an amazing glimpse into his emotional roller-coaster life as an entrepreneur from the late 90s to 2006.

Oliver went into entrepreneurship straight after university graduation, as he co-founded an online computer games startup called SYSIS in 1997. With only moderate commercial traction and without a real product, the startup was able to leverage the dot-com boom of the early 2000s and Oliver raised €5 million in cash. Hyped by the entrepreneurial lifestyle, the team grew to 75 members, and the startup moved to a luxurious 1,000 square-meter office in Vienna.

Oliver admitted that their inexperience led to an internal culture that did not trigger the change that was necessary: building a truly scalable product, managing costs and confronting the truth that their expansion plans might not work out as planned. He said the next few years were a nightmare. The team was reduced to fewer than 20 members and struggled to stay afloat, let alone provide a return to their investors. Perseverance and hustling, combined with some luck, kept the company going. The mobile- device era helped them to pivot from being a gaming startup to providing messaging services and ringtone storefronts. After SYSIS merged with two other startups, the US NASDAQ-listed company VeriSign acquired the company for almost €60 million in 2006, and Oliver Holle and his team celebrated the biggest exit of an Austrian startup to that point.

In many cases, startups and their founders are funded by external financial supporters such as business angels, VC funds, accelerators and so on. These are smart people evaluating initial ideas who believe in the founding teams. It’s a situation that can excite somebody’s mind but also cause considerable stress. Either way, dealing with high pressure is a choice, and in any case, entrepreneurs view failures as part of the game. Strangely, “pivot” is not necessarily all about failure. Larger corporate entities and smaller organizations should adopt the same methodology to turn struggling projects into successes.

As Elke M. Schüttelkopf mentioned, some projects incur unnecessary costs as they tend to take longer to execute than planned. There might be some reasonable explanations for that waste of money. A likely reason is that project teams of major companies usually have access to financial resources longer than startups typically do, and can take longer to reach the point where they must decide to press on, to pivot or to close.

Similarly, when projects are about to flop, the lack of a positive error culture tends to force project teams into silence and a lower level of collaboration. Instead of sharing information gathered right away and perhaps coming up with a Plan B, companies without a healthy error culture typically force employees to keep quiet. This causes a waste of money and opportunities. Remember: Plan B could be a good thing, particularly if the market or the customers are proving you wrong about Plan A.

Example: How odeo.com became Twitter and one of the best-known examples of a successful pivot. In 2005, odeo.com started up as a podcast directory producing recording tools for the web and phones. The founders thought of it as the future, where everyone could create their own podcasts. They faced challenges while attempting to match multimedia delivery with consumer habits; it turned out to be harder than they had imagined. When Apple moved into the space, announcing their decision to include a podcasting service in iTunes in 2006, odeo was forced to do something else. Just a year after launching odeo.com and with 14 full-time employees, the startup met its biggest challenge ever.

Facing the decision to shut the entire system down, the executive team embarked on a brainstorming competition called a hackathon. Odeo team members worked in pairs, attempting to think of a new business idea. This moment of crisis became an inspiration. Jack Dorsey, a junior team member, came up with a microblogging tool inspired by Flickr and the five-character length of American SMS short codes. They called this new tool Twitter. There was panic as they tried to launch the service and develop a user base despite a shortage of time and money. Then, in August 2006, a small earthquake shook San Francisco. The early Twitter adopters used the new service to spread the word and connect survivors with their families, and within weeks Twitter had thousands of users.

4. Who runs the world? We all do!

When talking about innovation, we naturally tend to talk about processes, methodologies, and implementations. The real driving force towards a positive error culture that enables innovation is, surprisingly, not any technique or process. It is neither the entrepreneurs nor somebody who might found a company in the future. After some time in Silicon Valley myself, and being an entrepreneur, a consultant and the founder of the Fuckup Nights in Vienna (Austria), I came to the conclusion that it’s society itself that has the real power to change old and dusty ways of dealing with failure. Wikipedia defines culture as “social behavior and norms found in human societies.” This includes people outside the little, happy “I’m a Founder/CEO” world, namely the hard-working employees of any given small, medium-sized or big company. A positive error corporate culture has to be embraced throughout the ranks of management. However, it should not stop there. There is also a world outside the office where each one of us can make a difference. Proactive contributions that help replace old-fashioned views are mainly what we need from all members of society. Innovators execute new ideas and concepts in the hopes of eventually creating value for society. Inevitably, though, many of them will fail. Rather than blaming innovators for failing, we should understand that every failure contains a positive story. It narrates how somebody tried something, made a first step towards realizing an idea or reaching a goal, a step of bravery.

Two crucial steps towards a positive error culture are empowering people and accepting the failures of others. Considering the fast changes happening around us, we should embrace that without failures, there’s no learning. Without learning, there’s no improvement.

Working with different audiences, I have learned that there are many ways to foster important innovations. Here are some actions everybody can do, starting today:

Important:

Acknowledge courage: Show your appreciation to founders and innovators who are brave and try out new things. Accept failures: Encourage the people around you to take chances, accept failures as positive lessons and get comfortable with the unavoidable higher cancel rate.

Motivate: Help others by sharing your knowledge or network rather than looking for reasons why an idea might fail. Give support: Support others willingly by testing new ideas and offering productive feedback.

The American rock band R.E.M. had that song “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.” I am certain that they didn’t mean for us to be afraid of the unknown. So, starting now, why not choose a future we want to create? Silicon Valley is known as the graveyard of failures, oddly making it Silicon Valley’s greatest strength. Holy moly, what went wrong over there? Do they really celebrate themselves as a graveyard? To understand that, we have to get rid of our short-sightedness in terms of taking risks. Silicon Valley became the epicenter of innovation and entrepreneurship for a good reason. The way the Bay Area, or even the United States in general, looks at and learns from failure is essential. There’s no difference in the characteristics of a founder in the US, Europe, Africa or anywhere else. Founders are sometimes crazy; we can live with that. Still, they are all definitely brave and willing to try new things. American society is noticeably different, though. Americans are naturally empathetic, relish risk-taking and support entrepreneurship in a very involved way. If people are not interested in the idea, product or service, they still admire the founder’s courage and creativity. If there is interest, it’s easy to get people to test a product or service. The willingness to try things is one major benefit American founders enjoy in their entrepreneurial ecosystem. The second one is quite frankly difficult to stomach but still very valuable: loyalty for new things that don’t precisely match the customer’s expectations is almost nonexistent. If it is not working, they’ll drop it. This behavior might shock some readers, but that is exactly what a founder’s world desperately needs: customers who try out new things. If customers continue using the offer, that’s even better. But customers who jump ship are still better than hesitating customers. Customer rejection can be crucial, as it signals to the founder the interest is existent, but the product is not ready yet. This simple act of taking active roles as potential customers makes the difference, but unfortunately, it is not the case for many cultures. Societal support in the United States for risk-takers empowers people to follow their dreams. This actually makes the difference by laying a foundation for a positive error culture. Compared to other regions, Europe might have one of the best social security and safety nets in the world. With the backstop Europe provides to its people, it is unintelligible why the fear of failure still exists. A study published by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor showed that Europeans aged from 18 to 35 are most affected by their fear of failure, more than anywhere else in the world. It is the reason that prevents many young people from starting a business, taking a risk. Fear of failure should be considered as more than just a warning sign. Happily, some first steps and improvements can be noticed. The European Union has launched an initiative called LIFE - Learning from Failure in a collaborative Entrepreneurship network. The initiative seeks to generate and grow awareness that failure is an inherent part of the process and to share success stories that are built on incremental learnings.

Without overrating it, this could be the long-awaited action to bring Europe back onto the tech map.

Failure is a necessary part of innovation and a natural product of trial and error. Keep in mind that every failure has a story that we can learn from. Equally important, it implies that somebody made a first step toward realizing an idea or even a dream – this takes courage. As the Fuckup Nights all around the world have shown, the majority of professionals rarely create the business of the year with their first attempt. So if you want to stop talking and start acting, I encourage you to follow these basic rules:

1. Be brave: Step out of your comfort zone and take the risk in life that seems worthy.

2. Stop seeking perfection: Perfection is an unrealistic goal. Start experimenting, exploring and creating anything you choose to with a reduced expectation of perfection.

3. Pivot if necessary: Keep in mind that your initial assumptions might not match reality. Listen carefully to your audience and remain open to the need to make adjustments. It’s your vision that counts.

4. Share your fuck-ups: Convert failures into learnings and share them with the rest of the world. A project considered to be a failure by one might be regarded as an inspiration by another.

5. Do it: Now!

Thank you, Elke, for inviting me to join you on this amazing project. It was my pleasure and also a positive challenge. However, in contrast to your very thoughtful instructions on how to learn from mistakes, my contribution is rather a written record of my experiences with this topic, inspired by the Fuckup Nights I’ve organized, my Fuckup Nights colleagues all around the world, discussions with students, and personal collaborations with inspiring executives who have shared how they introduced a positive error culture within their organizations. Finally, I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation to my brother, Nenad Vicovac, for his assistance in creating a concept; and to the best neighbor, one could ever hope for, Mr. Ken J. Taylor, for his clever direction through the process. About the Author Elke M. Schüttelkopf

With her groundbreaking research work in the area of error management, Elke M. Schüttelkopf has established herself as a leading expert in this innovative field. She has published numerous newspaper and magazine articles as well as several reference books. As a management trainer, executive coach, and business consultant, Elke is active throughout Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. She advises international conglomerates, major manufacturing companies, service organizations and the public sector on improving their quality management and respective error management. Work takes Elke across the various industry sectors where she provides assistance to high-tech and chemical companies, to banks and insurance companies as well as to universities and the public sector.

Her diverse list of clients includes: Alcatel, APA Austria Press Agency, Deutsche Lufthansa, Hewlett Packard, Lenzing Group, Merck Group, MTU Aero Engines, ORF Austrian Broadcasting Cooperation, Raiffeisen Bank, RHI Magnesita, Spängler Privatbank, Telekom Austria, Voest Alpine, the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber as well as the City of Vienna and the various ministries.

Elke works for a number of renowned educational institutions and universities, including the Technical University of Vienna while also teaching at the University of Applied Sciences in Vienna. In January 2018, she was invited to be the keynote speaker for Vienna’s Innovation Conference in the ceremonial hall of the city’s historic town hall.

Elke has turned her focus to dealing with mistakes in the professional field. She works together with people from all the different positions in the corporate hierarchy, whether they are trainees or specialists, quality managers, CEOs or members of the board of directors. Advising on all organizational aspects, she provides guidance to the research and development as well as production and customer service departments besides giving pointers to the purchasing, controlling and accounting departments.

She offers a broad spectrum of services ranging from individual consultations to management coaching and team development with a focus on learning how to deal with one’s own mistakes and those made by others. For companies, she ascertains and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of their organizational culture of mistakes, drawing up plans for developing their Mistake Culture while accompanying the implementation measures both in her role as a consultant as well as coach.

Active in personal and team development since 1987 and later on in international business management, Elke covers all the key elements from career coaching through team building to leadership courses in her dual capacity as a consultant and coach. In the field of error management alone, more than 15,000 people have attended her workshops and been privy to her coaching sessions throughout the German-speaking world in the past 15 years.

In her free time, she enjoys gardening and ballroom dancing as well as actively pursuing sports and traveling around the world with her significant other.

Elke majored in theater and film studies and minored in psychology, receiving her Diploma from the University of Vienna in 1989. Various further studies and certifications followed, including and culminating in an Executive MBA in Intra- and Entrepreneurship in 2006 as well as a Master of Science in Supervision and Coaching in 2007.

Visit the author’s website: Fehlerkultur Email the author: [email protected] Other Books by the Author

Elke M. Schüttelkopf: Fehler. Lernen. Unternehmen. Wie Sie die Fehlerkultur und Lernreife Ihrer Organisation wahrnehmen und gestalten (2008)

Elke M. Schüttelkopf: Erfolgsstrategie Fehlerkultur! Wie Organisationen durch einen professionellen Umgang mit Fehlern ihre Performance optimieren (2008/2014)

Elke M. Schüttelkopf: Lernen aus Fehlern Wie man aus Schaden klug wird (2013 / 2015)

Elke M. Schüttelkopf, Ulrich Vogl: Betriebliches Lernen aus Fehlern Praxisorientierte Überlegungen zur systematischen Weiterentwicklung der Fehlerkultur in Industrieunternehmen in: Martin Gartmeier, Hans Gruber, Tina Hascher, Helmut Heid (Hrsg.): Fehler: Ihre Funktionen im Kontext individueller und gesellschaftlicher Entwicklung Errors: Their Functions in Context of Individual and Societal Development (2015) About the Translator Corinne von Nordmann

Looking back on an award-winning international career as a highly sought-after concert pianist and composer as well as a successful indie film producer out in Hollywood, Corinne von Nordmann has now turned her focus on a myriad of creative writing projects these past few years. Besides working on her books and other media-related projects, she has also been carving out a niche for herself as a literary translator. She is bilingual and able to translate all kinds of texts effortlessly from German into English, having worked on projects ranging from Christmas stories and children’s books to art history dissertations as well as technical instruction manuals. Throughout 2017, Corinne was busy as the sole translator of the first book of an epic adventure-thriller series set out in the Pacific Rim. Matu revolves around a mysterious artifact, the Maori, and a mercenary with the local sheriff acting as the reluctant hero while countless bodies are piling up against a backdrop of unexplained phenomena and events. More volumes are in the works and will again include her translation as well as editing services. In 2016 Corinne joined Flickr. Her stream of nature and wildlife photos has turned into a carefully curated blog where she also writes quite extensively about environmental issues besides weaving in important facts and figures about the local garden wildlife. A Getty Images Artist since 2017, an exclusive selection of Corinne’s wildlife and nature images are available for sale via the Getty Images website under her name. Some of her international clients on Getty include Radio France, Viacom Media Network, McGraw-Hill Education, Costco, Rewe AG, Tübitak, Polyconsult AG, Media Works TV New Zealand and South Korea’s search engine Naver. Corinne received a Bachelor of Music in Piano and Composition from New York’s prestigious The Juilliard School, graduating with the highest honors in 1993. At the time, she also attended Juilliard’s joint program with Columbia University for comparative literature and theater studies from 1990 - 1993 in her former hometown.

She then spent the next decade based in Europe, where she also took part in the master’s program for arts and media management at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, Germany.

In terms of her award-winning musical career, Corinne started out as a child prodigy. At the tender age of seven, she was already winning top prizes in international piano competitions and composing her first pieces. When she was eight, she was featured in a cover story about prodigies in the New York Times Magazine besides having her first television appearances.

Shortly after her tenth birthday, Corinne performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV 414 at the famed Oetkerhalle (Bielefeld, Germany) to standing ovations and rave reviews. By the time she was fifteen, she was composing her own full orchestral scores, dramatic and dark, cinematic in their scope and language, immediately garnering national awards for her creative work. She also received prizes for her poetry and set a number of her poems to music.

Musical highlights in the following years included performing at the Salzburg Easter Festival, Berlin Philharmonic, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Musikhalle Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, at Lincoln Center and other major concert venues throughout Europe and the States along with numerous television and radio appearances (NDR, ZDF, Klassik Radio, Deutschland Radio Berlin) in a wide variety of repertoire as composer, arranger, soloist and chamber musician with noted personalities from both the classical music and jazz worlds.

Other distinctions: CD recordings (EMI Classics) and commissions (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Chamber Orchestra, among others) together with an array of prestigious awards, including 12 ASCAP Awards, 3 BMI Awards, the ARTS Award from the NFFA, various international career grants as well as the Charles E. Ives Scholarship from the distinguished American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters when she was just 19 years old. It was Corinne’s music that won over the cult author of The Alchemist and one of the most influential authors of the previous decade, Paolo Coelho. As the initial producer, Corinne brought another of Coelho’s international bestsellers, Veronika Decides To Die, to Muse Productions in LA, the company behind such films as Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo 66, American Psycho, Love Liza and Spun. The film adaptation of Veronika Decides To Die was released in November 2009, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jonathan Tucker, David Thewlis, Melissa Leo and Erika Christensen with a screenplay by Larry Gross. That same year, Corinne developed an original dramedy series perfect for primetime television in the imaginative visual style of Ugly Betty and the structural manner of Six Feet Under and Entourage. During this time, she also worked on various theatrical projects as producer, arranger, performer, and composer as well as writing and recording for film. Having spent several decades actively involved in the arts in both the States as well as Europe, Corinne likes to say that her heart is American and her soul is European.

Email the translator: [email protected] Follow her blog on Flickr: Flaushi & Friends Buy her nature and wildlife images: Getty Images Portfolio About the Illustrator Olivia Gnahn

Olivia Gnahn could barely talk and walk when she started creating cartoons and illustrations. By the tender age of four, it was clear that art and design would play a central role in the life of this Munich native. For her high school graduation project, she created a modern-day version of the classic fairy tale The Frog Prince as an animated film. In 2011, she won a highly coveted scholarship for a prestigious art workshop in Austria where she was mentored by a series of renowned artists. Olivia then went to Italy to pursue her passion for language and culture through communication and cultural studies in English, Italian, and German. The intersection of aesthetics and marketing has always fascinated Olivia, and it inspired her final thesis on this subject matter: “The mutual influence of art and advertising as shown through the work of Oliviero Toscani.” Upon completing her studies in 2017, Olivia started working as a graphic designer for a boutique advertising agency in Munich. In her spare time, she also works as a freelancer doing illustrations, image editing and layout design for select clients. She has a particular affinity for designing CD covers, brochures, and books. Since 2017, Olivia shares some of her creative work via Instagram.

Follow the illustrator and designer on Instagram: @oliviaelisa92 For inquiries regarding her cartoons, contact: [email protected] About the Guest Author Dejan Stojanovic

Dejan Stojanovic is a serial entrepreneur as well as digital & new media specialist who partners with CEOs and marketing executives to help grow their professional brands while preparing them to succeed in meeting future challenges. After founding his first startup in the automotive industry and living in Silicon Valley, Dejan knows what truly drives conversions - and it has nothing to do with mastering the marketing flavor of the week. It is all about how well you connect with your current and future customers while being able to communicate your understanding back to them. Dejan is a passionate entrepreneur and supporter of the Austrian startup ecosystem. His personal conviction that failure is the mother of innovation motivated him to start and host the Austrian version of “Fuckup Nights.” This groundbreaking series of events introduces the U.S. perspective of a healthier startup and business culture, where business failure stories are publicly shared and questioned while the learning effects are celebrated. Due to his extensive experience in entrepreneurship and error culture, Dejan has landed coverage in different print and broadcast outlets in Austria while also being invited to give speeches at venues such as TEDx Klagenfurt, the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and BMW Startup Garage.

Dejan holds a master’s degree in law from the University of Vienna. Visit the guest author’s website: Fuckup Nights Vienna

Email the guest author: [email protected] Contact the guest author: +43 (664) 3077626