In my last two posts, I shared my view on how CEO’s and managers discuss mistakes in their executive coaching sessions with me.  I pointed out how much the discussions focused on the emotional consequences of the mistake and not the underlying cognitive process.  This got me thinking about how my professional of psychology handles mistakes – not too well, since errors are rarely recognized.  Medicine is doing better by changing professional attitudes and teaching about the cognitive biases and traps that often blind a physician’s thinking.

In today’s post, I point to a high-flying example that we can all emulate.

Aviation Industry; a model

There are many admirable aspects about the aviation industry concerning the management of errors, perhaps because the consequences are obvious and dramatic.

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Mistakes · Problem-solving

In my previous post, I shared my view on how CEO’s and managers discuss mistakes in their executive coaching sessions with me.  I pointed out how much the discussions focused on the emotional consequences of the mistake and not the underlying cognitive process.  I offered that my own profession of clinical psychology didn’t do a particularly good job either in handling mistakes. In today’s comments, I’ll examine some of the changes that are reducing medical mistakes before I present a model for us all.

Errors in medicine; torts and traps

In contrast to Psychology, there is more consistence about what interventions will cure or kill a medical patient.  However, the variability in each patient’s presentation with only partial overlap with group-based diagnostic criteria makes the environment ripe for mistaking the condition and providing the wrong treatment. Even the right treatment can initiate a chain of side effects that becomes as serious as the original problem.  Given this inherent complexity plus the fact medical decisions are often split-second decisions made by stressed and tired medical professionals, it is not surprising that errors occur.  We have documented evidence for the magnitude of the problem; the US Institute of Medicine estimated that 44,000 to 98,000 patients succumb to medical errors each year in the US.

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Mistakes · Reacting to errors

We all make mistakes. Lawyers sometimes accept cases that they know they shouldn’t; teachers get into battles with kids that are unwinnable; and executives fail to consider all the variables in their strategic planning analysis. The question is; do we learn from our mistakes?  Regrettably, our current culture stresses apology over analysis.

In my practice of executive coaching I hear about business blunders all the time.  Actually, I don’t often hear about the mistake itself, more likely, I hear about the emotional consequences. I see people berate themselves or reach out for consolation after making a mistake that leads to the unleashing of a tirade from an aggressive boss. I hear people resolve never to do it again or vow to do better in the future.

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Mistakes · Problem-solving