Learning From Mistakes

Is your organization, or client’s organization, benefiting from its mistakes? Is the organization stagnant, afraid to try something new, avoiding mistakes at all costs? While we all prefer successes over failures, failures are a better teacher.

In a recent Harvard Business Review articles by Amy Edmondson she contrasted the execution-as-efficiency approach of General Motors (GM) and the execution-as-learning approach of General Electric (GE). In 2007, GM posted a loss of $38.7 billion, while GE posted a profit of $22.5 billion. Since both of these gigantic companies were founded in the industrial age, it behooves us to ask, “What’s the difference?”

Edmondson believes the difference is in how they think about execution. I agree.

While the execution of procedures according to plan is very important in a manufacturing facility (or any kind of organization), it can inhibit innovation, process improvement, and learning because it discourages deviations from the old way of doing things. As Edmondson points out, “experimentation and reflection are vital to sustainable success.” GM and GE clearly demonstrate the importance of intelligent experimentation, ingenuity, and resilience in the face of adversity.

Creating an execution-as-learning approach requires organizational culture support. Changing organizational culture is very difficult and costly is terms of time, energy, and money. In some organizations the benefits will not out weigh the costs.

To support an execution-as-learning mindset, the organizational culture must view work process policies as guidelines subject to change and improvement. Small changes must be a way of life. Feedback must be two-way. Learning from mistakes (rather than burying them) must be encouraged. Fear must be reduced; fear cripples learning.

To learn more about organizational learning and other organizational effectiveness topics use the Search function on my blog or read my book, “Strategic Organizational Learning” (available at Amazon.com or my website www.mikebeitler.com).

There are also many free resources on the Free Stuff page on my website.