Posts

Working Through Mistakes: The Uncomfortable Truth About Getting It Wrong

Related Articles:

The bloke sitting across from me in the boardroom was sweating bullets, and it wasn't because the air con was busted. He'd just realised his "brilliant" cost-cutting initiative had actually increased our overheads by 23%. Classic mistake. But here's the thing – watching him squirm reminded me of something I learned the hard way about 12 years ago when I was still wet behind the ears in consulting.

I used to think mistakes were career killers. Wrong.

The Mistake About Mistakes

Most professionals treat errors like radioactive waste – something to be contained, hidden, and never spoken of again. That's rubbish. In my experience working with everyone from tradies to tech executives across Melbourne and Brisbane, the biggest mistake you can make is not making enough mistakes.

Sounds mental? Bear with me.

When I was running workshops for a major mining company in Perth (can't name them, but let's just say they dig up a lot of red dirt), I noticed something fascinating. The teams that bounced back fastest from stuffups weren't the ones who never made errors. They were the ones who'd developed what I call "mistake muscle memory."

Think about it like this – if you're not making mistakes, you're probably not pushing hard enough. You're playing it safe in the shallow end while your competitors are doing backflips off the high dive.

The Three Types of Workplace Mistakes (And Why Two of Them Are Actually Good)

After nearly two decades in business consulting, I've categorised workplace mistakes into three buckets:

Type 1: The Stupid Mistake These are the face-palmers. Sending the wrong email to the wrong client. Forgetting to save the presentation before the big meeting. Using "Reply All" when you meant to gossip privately about Janet from HR. These happen to everyone, they're embarrassing, but they're also completely forgettable within a week.

Type 2: The Learning Mistake This is where the magic happens. You tried something new, took a calculated risk, and it didn't work out. Maybe you pitched a new service offering that flopped spectacularly. Or launched a team restructure that created more chaos than efficiency. These mistakes sting, but they're gold mines for professional development.

Type 3: The Avoidable Mistake These are the killers. Mistakes that happen because someone didn't do their homework, ignored obvious warning signs, or was too proud to ask for help. A client of mine once lost a $2.3 million contract because they didn't bother checking whether their main competitor had already locked in the tender. Ouch.

Here's my controversial opinion: you should be actively seeking out Type 2 mistakes.

Why Australian Businesses Are Failing at Failure

We've got this weird cultural thing happening. On one hand, we love the underdog story – the battler who gets knocked down and gets back up. On the other hand, our corporate culture is absolutely terrified of admitting when things go wrong.

I see it constantly in Sydney offices where executives spend more time covering their arses than fixing the actual problem. It's exhausting and, frankly, it's killing innovation.

The companies that are absolutely crushing it right now? They're the ones that have learned to fail fast and fail cheap. They run pilot programs expecting 60% of them to bomb. They prototype like crazy knowing most prototypes will end up in the bin.

The Recovery Framework That Actually Works

When mistakes happen (and they will), here's the process I teach my clients:

Own it immediately – None of this "mistakes were made" passive voice nonsense. "I stuffed up" is a complete sentence.
Quantify the damage – How much did it cost? What's the timeline impact? Who needs to know? Get the facts straight before emotions take over.
Fix the immediate problem – Stop the bleeding first, conduct the post-mortem later.
Extract the lesson – This is where most people fall down. They fix the problem and move on without actually learning anything.
Share the knowledge – Yeah, this bit's uncomfortable, but it's crucial. Your mistake could prevent someone else from making the same error.

I remember working with a brilliant engineer who'd made a calculation error that delayed a project by three months. Instead of hiding it, she turned it into a training case study for the entire department. That kind of transparency takes guts, but it also builds the kind of resilient culture that actually delivers results.

The Perfectionist Trap

Here's something that'll probably ruffle some feathers: perfectionism is largely overrated in the modern workplace.

Don't get me wrong – I'm not advocating for sloppy work. But I've watched too many talented professionals paralysed by the fear of getting something wrong. They spend weeks polishing presentations that needed to be "good enough" two weeks ago.

Netflix has this concept called "keeper test" – they regularly evaluate whether they'd fight to keep each employee. But they also have something called "freedom and responsibility" culture where they explicitly encourage smart risk-taking, even when it sometimes leads to mistakes.

The best performers I've worked with have this common trait: they're comfortable being uncomfortable. They'll put forward ideas that might not work. They'll suggest process changes that could backfire. But they do it thoughtfully, with clear reasoning and backup plans.

Mistake Recovery in the Age of Social Media

This bit gets interesting. Twenty years ago, you could stuff up at work and it stayed at work. Now? One disgruntled customer can broadcast your mistake to thousands of people before you've even finished your morning coffee.

But here's the flip side – companies that handle mistakes well online often end up stronger than before. I've seen businesses turn catastrophic customer service failures into viral positive PR simply by owning the mistake and going above and beyond to fix it.

The key is speed and authenticity. The old corporate playbook of "investigate thoroughly before commenting" doesn't work when Twitter moves at the speed of light.

Personal Boundaries Around Professional Mistakes

Something I learned the hard way (after a particularly brutal project failure in Adelaide about eight years ago): you need to separate professional mistakes from personal worth.

Yes, you made an error at work. No, that doesn't make you a terrible person or a fraud. The impostor syndrome spiral is real, and it'll eat you alive if you let it.

I tell my clients to imagine their best mate made the same mistake. What would you tell them? Probably something supportive and constructive, right? Extend yourself the same courtesy.

Building Anti-Fragile Teams

The most interesting development I've seen lately is teams that actually get stronger when things go wrong. Not just resilient – anti-fragile.

These teams have regular "failure parties" where they celebrate the mistakes that taught them something valuable. They run pre-mortems on new projects, actively imagining what could go wrong before it does. They train together on crisis scenarios so when real problems hit, everyone knows their role.

It sounds touchy-feely, but the results speak for themselves. These teams consistently outperform their more "careful" counterparts because they're not wasting mental energy on fear.

The Comeback Strategy

Here's what I wish someone had told me after my first major career mistake: your reputation isn't defined by whether you make mistakes. It's defined by how you handle them.

I know executives who are sought after specifically because they've been through the wringer and came out the other side. They've got battle scars and hard-won wisdom that you simply can't get from textbooks or case studies.

The comeback always takes longer than you think it should. Be patient with yourself. Focus on doing the next right thing, then the next one after that. Before you know it, that mistake becomes just another chapter in your professional story.

What About the Really Big Ones?

Sometimes mistakes aren't just learning opportunities – they're career-threatening disasters. I've been there. We probably all have, if we're being honest.

When the stakes are genuinely high, you need a different playbook. Get legal advice if needed. Document everything. Communicate with stakeholders early and often. Consider whether you need professional support to work through the emotional impact.

But even then, remember: very few mistakes are truly irreversible. Industries are smaller than they seem, and people have longer memories for how you handled adversity than for the adversity itself.

The truth about managing difficult situations is that most of them start with someone making a mistake and then either handling it brilliantly or making it infinitely worse through poor damage control.

Moving Forward Without Looking Back

After two decades in this game, here's what I know for certain: the professionals who thrive long-term aren't the ones who never make mistakes. They're the ones who've learned to make mistakes productively.

They experiment with calculated risks. They fail fast when something isn't working. They extract maximum learning from minimum pain. And perhaps most importantly, they help others do the same.

Your next mistake is coming whether you want it or not. The question isn't whether you'll stuff up – it's whether you'll be ready to turn that stuffup into something valuable.

Because in the end, that's what separates the leaders from the followers: not the absence of mistakes, but the presence of courage to keep trying anyway.