To learn better, keep & review a mistake log

Working for the last two years on The Mistake Bank, I've become a bit of a connoisseur of mistake stories and literature on learning from mistakes. This has meant scrutinizing my own mistakes and trying to learn better from them.

I've made one significant realization: Sometimes errors are one-off oversights, other times they reflect weaknesses we need to work on (at still other times they are serendipitous events, but that's another story). How does one tell the difference?

Here's an example. Last year, I noticed that I lost track of several conference calls over a period of months. This was unthinkable to me, since I'd always prided myself on discipline and organization :). But the pattern was worrisome. In my business, if you miss a client conference call, or worse, two or three, you may have an ex-client on your hands. What I realized was, I was getting busier, and therefore my mind was not able to manage all the data I was asking it to. This realization drew me to David Allen's book "Getting Things Done" and adopting many of its suggestions.

To learn most from your mistakes, I'd suggest this approach. When an "unplanned event" happens, jot yourself a note. What happened? What did you expect, and how did the outcome differ from your expectations? Put it in a file.

At the end of the year, or at another time when you have space and a clear mind to reflect, pull out the file. Review the notes. See if patterns emerge. Are there variations of errors happening over and over? Why? Can you make any changes to try to reduce their occurrence in the future? With hard-to-correct mistakes, the changes will be difficult. You may need tools or external help to improve--but ignore those patterns at your peril.

Another story: When I was a salesperson and sales leader, I continually undershot my forecasts. Of course, I had reasons why--the product had problems, the customers weren't ready, the macro environment had changed for the worse.

Some years after the fact, I finally realized that I was a lousy forecaster. I was too optimistic--I saw huge potential where it was limited, predicted easy wins where there was competition, trusted in the rationality of buyers. This is a hard-to-correct mistake. After a lot of thought, I came to the decision not to do sales forecasts--and if I had to do one, rely on the thinking of others to help me.

I only wish I had been tracking my forecasting mistakes and reflecting on them at that time. I would have saved myself and my companies a lot of problems.

(Photo by koalazymoney via Flickr Creative Commons)