Comments on: No mistakes, no progress.

By: Toppenish

Toppenish — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 18:53:56 +0000

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By: Gordon Tredgold

Gordon Tredgold — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 08:04:11 +0000

Herbert thanks for the comment, i fully support this view.
I have a slightly different story, but similar theme on rugby. A few years back NZ had a team that were playing the best rugby of any nation. They had found a way to reduce the number of errors to a ridiculously low level, which made them practically unbeatable. What was there approach – perfect practice they drilled and drilled in ordered to eliminate mistakes.
Other teams saw this error free rugby and tried to copy it, but they didn’t understand how it had been achieved. One country, who will remain nameless, found a different way to reduce errors, and that was by reducing risks. They played very safe rugby.
The only problem was that they made few errors but also created very few chances and consequently they didn’t achieve their primary goal of winning more games.
IT also made them very dull to watch.

By: Herbert Peters

Herbert Peters — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 07:20:30 +0000

At a foreign exchange trading centre at the Middle East a boss kept on telling his traders, No Mistakes’ and ofcourse they made no profits too. But then a boss came and said. “Make as many mistakes as you want, but at the end of the day, I wan profits.” he made the dealing department one of the most profitable in area.

By: Gordon Tredgold

Gordon Tredgold — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 05:50:30 +0000

Doug, it’s a dilemma you have the choice of “failing through wrong action or failing from in-action”, but for me and most good leaders this isn’t really a choice as in-action never leads to success.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 01:37:51 +0000

Gordon, great comments. I recall Frank Borman telling me once that a good manager makes 50% of his/her decisions correctly. He also said if the manager says he/she makes 75% right, then he/she is a liar. His point to me as a young manager working for him was not to fear making mistakes in our decisions but to learn from the bad ones and keep taking control and making decisions when needed. Those who fear mistakes enough tend to fail to make decisions that are needed, and that in and of itself is a mistake as well. I enjoyed your comments.
Doug