by Garry Spotts

Created on: August 28, 2009

Thomas A. Edison, the legendary American Inventor is reputed to have said, 'I make more mistakes than anyone else I know, and sooner or later, I patent most of them." The truth is that many a mistake in business evolves into legitimate business profit. Fear of failure and the fear of making mistakes are two of life's greatest inhibitors to risk-taking, creativity and innovation. If necessity is the mother of invention, then mistake is its father.

Virtually every new product or service is the result of trial and error, each one born out of an intentioned process of controlled mistake and failure. In fact, failure is the only real teacher in life. Success teaches us precious little about ourselves or the process of succeeding. Failure is the parent of persistence, the creator of character and we value people more highly who recover from error and setback to achieve victory. They are the icons of business today and the stuff of sports legend and heroism celebrated the world over.

Making the "Correct" Mistakes

Errors and mistakes can be costly in the workplace. It is important to correctly value them and determine what area needs innovation and which areas of your business are well developed. Areas of business which expose your company to liability and litigation should remain as error and mistake free as possible. Never place yourself or your company to an unreasonable risk.

Mistakes are most valuable when they occur in a controlled environment where risk is less than the potential for success. Innovation is informed by mistake, and companies must encourage this kind of risk-taking in the development of processes, product innovation and service delivery. Creating work teams who collaborate on innovating processes in live work scenarios provides a real world laboratory for workplace error-driven innovation.

Controlling risk and valuing the creative process which results in potentially profitable mistakes should be a corporate value. Thomas J. Watson, the iconic "founder" of IBM said, "The way to succeed is to double your error rate." Create an environment and corporate culture which views errors and mistakes as learning opportunities for the entire company rather than evidence of an employee's incompetence or negligence.

Make Room for Failure while encouraging and expecting success

It is important to give people room to fail, while holding them accountable to correct their mistakes for the benefit of the company. By creating an environment where error and mistake are viewed as teaching opportunities you reduce the incidence of covering up and sweeping dirt under the rug in your company. It is best to know what mistakes have been made quickly and understand them thoroughly so as to assess their potential for damage or value for innovation.

When we discourage and threaten people with sanction and termination for making mistakes we limit innovation and encourage subterfuge when mistakes and errors are made. A corporate culture which accepts that people are error prone and make mistakes, while treating the person who made the mistake with respect and holding them accountable to transform it into a benefit, wins the game.

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