Tag Archives: Lessons Learned

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Your Business is Throwing Money Away By Repeating Mistakes

One of the most frustrating things a leader can experience is to learn that a painful or costly mistake that happened in the past, continues to be repeated within the business. The pain of the mistake and the effort required to fix it should be enough incentive to ensure that the same mistake is not made again. However, that is rarely the case!

This was a big challenge I faced in leading a global business. How can lessons learned in one world area be shared efficiently and effectively with the other world areas? I can’t count the number of times I sat in a review in one world area to find out they just made a mistake that another area made 1, 5 or even 10 years prior. This is so frustrating for everyone involved and it costs the organization a lot of money!

Why are Mistakes Repeated?

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5 Simple Steps To Fail Your Way To Success

“The goal, then, is to uncouple fear and failure – to create an environment in which making mistakes doesn’t strike terror into your employees’ hearts.” Ed Catmull

 

Organizations that value growth and success encourage their employees to innovate, try new things and stretch the boundaries of the business. These organizations embrace failure because they realize without failure an organization cannot grow and reach new levels of success. They also know that if an organization is not growing then it is stagnating . . . and stagnating businesses fail.

My son and a few of his friends started a landscape and lawn care company this summer. They built a website, flyers, posters and brochures. They knocked on doors, distributed flyers and sold their services to as many people as they could. Once they landed enough customers, they went and rented an aerator and power rake and worked their tails off. At the end of the first day they had lost $15! Talk about a disappointing failure!