The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation
About this ebook
DANIEL H. PINK, #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF DRIVE, WHEN, AND THE POWER OF REGRET
We all make mistakes. What matters is learning from them, as individuals, teams, and organizations.
The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation is an engaging, inspiring, and practical book by Mark Graban that presents an alternative approach to mistakes. Rather than punishing individuals for human error and bad decisions, Graban encourages us to embrace and learn from them, fostering a culture of learning and innovation.
Sharing stories and insights from his popular podcast, “My Favorite Mistake,” along with his own work and career experiences, Graban show how leaders can cultivate a culture of learning from mistakes. Including examples from manufacturing, healthcare, software, and two whiskey distillers, the book explores how organizations of all sizes and industries can benefit from this approach.
In the book, you'll find practical guidance on adopting a positive mindset towards mistakes. It teaches you to acknowledge and appreciate them, take necessary measures to avoid them while gaining knowledge from the ones that occur. Additionally, it emphasizes creating a safe environment to express mistakes and encourages responding constructively by emphasizing learning over punishment.
Developing a culture of learning from mistakes through psychological safety is essential in effective leadership and organizational success. Leaders must lead by example and demonstrate kindness to themselves and others by accepting their own blunders instead of solely pushing for more courage from their team. This approach, as Graban highlights, fosters a positive and productive work environment.
The Mistakes That Make Us is a must-read for anyone looking to create a stronger organization that produces better results, including lower turnover, more improvement and innovation, and better bottom-line performance. Whether you are a startup founder or an aspiring leader in a larger company, this book will inspire you to lead with kindness and humility, and show you how mistakes can make things right.
Table of Contents:
Chapter One: Think Positively
Chapter Two: Admit Mistakes
Chapter Three: Be Kind
Chapter Four: Prevent Mistakes
Chapter Five: Help Everyone to Speak Up
Chapter Six: Choose Improvement, Not Punishment
Chapter Seven: Iterate Your Way to Success
Chapter Eight: Cultivate Forever
Afterword
End Notes
List of Podcast Guests Mentioned in the Book
More Praise for the Book
”Making mistakes is not a choice. Learning from them is. Whether we admit it or not, mistakes are the raw material of potential learning and the means by which we progress and move forward. Mark Graban's The Mistakes That Make Us is a brilliant treatment of this topic that helps us frame mistakes properly, detach them from fear, and see them as expectations, not exceptions. This book's ultimate contribution is helping us realize that creating a culture of productive mistake-making accelerates learning, confidence, and success.”
TIMOTHY R. CLARK, PHD, AUTHOR OF THE 4 STAGES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY, CEO OF LEADERFACTOR
About the author
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, speaker, blogger, and entrepreneur. He specializes in Lean management, continuous improvement, statistical methods, and people-centered leadership to cultivate psychological safety and employee engagement, working with leaders at all levels in various industries.
He has authored several books, including "Measures of Success," "Lean Hospitals," "Healthcare Kaizen," and "Practicing Lean." His latest book is "The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation" (June 2023). He founded and manages LeanBlog.org and hosts podcasts including "Lean Blog Interviews" and "My Favorite Mistake. Mark is also a “LinkedIn Top Voice.”
Working independently since 2010, Mark often partners with other consulting groups on larger engagements. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology and software company KaiNexus and has a small equity stake.
Mark earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering (BSIE) from Northwestern University. He also earned a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) as a Fellow in the MIT Sloan Leaders for Global Operations Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
