The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation

We all make mistakes. What matters is learning from them, as individuals, teams, and organizations. This award-winning book shows you how.
Winner! 2023 Goody Business Book Awards, Business Problem-Solving Category
The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation is an engaging, inspiring, and practical book by Mark Graban that presents an alternative approach to mistakes. Rather than punishing individuals for human error and bad decisions, Graban encourages us to embrace and learn from them, fostering a culture of learning and innovation.
Sharing stories and insights from his popular podcast, “My Favorite Mistake,” along with his own work and career experiences, Graban shows how leaders can cultivate a culture of learning from mistakes. Including examples from manufacturing, healthcare, software, and two whiskey distillers, the book explores how organizations of all sizes and industries can benefit from this approach.
In the book, you'll find practical guidance on adopting a positive mindset towards mistakes. It teaches you to acknowledge and appreciate them and take necessary measures to avoid them while gaining knowledge from the ones that occur. Additionally, it emphasizes creating a safe environment to express mistakes and encourages responding constructively by emphasizing learning over punishment.
Developing a culture of learning from mistakes through psychological safety is essential in effective leadership and organizational success. Leaders must lead by example and demonstrate kindness to themselves and others by accepting their own blunders instead of solely pushing for more courage from their team. This approach, as Graban highlights, fosters a positive and productive work environment.
The Mistakes That Make Us is a must-read for anyone looking to create a stronger organization that produces better results, including lower turnover, more improvement and innovation, and better bottom-line performance. Whether a startup founder or an aspiring leader in a larger company, this book will inspire you to lead with kindness and humility and show you how mistakes can make things right. Table of Contents:
Chapter One: Think Positively
Chapter Two: Admit Mistakes
Chapter Three: Be Kind
Chapter Four: Prevent Mistakes
Chapter Five: Help Everyone to Speak Up
Chapter Six: Choose Improvement, Not Punishment
Chapter Seven: Iterate Your Way to Success
Chapter Eight: Cultivate Forever
Afterword
End Notes
List of Podcast Guests Mentioned in the Book