No more boring mistakes

I need to clear up some confusion.The goal is not to make more mistakes. That goal is to make more interesting mistakes.Because making the same mistakes over and over again is also known as “incompetence.”Making mistakes can be a valuable pathway to growth, but growth implies that those mistakes teach us something so that we can move on to the next, more interesting mistakes.An example:When running the bases in an important game, Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. made an aggressive turn at third base in an attempt to score. He was thrown out at the plate, but his manager applauded the gamble because it put pressure on the defense to perform perfectly. The result wasn’t what he hoped for, but the decision to force the action made sense.This kind of “mistake” is very different from another moment, in another game, when he booted a ball hit right to him. That one was frustrating. Because he’s a professional baseball player and it’s his job to catch the balls hit right to him.Your people need to understand that mistakes are inevitable in an environment where fast, fearless execution is the norm.But they also need to understand that not all mistakes are created equal.TRY THIS: Remind your team that it’s okay to make interesting mistakes when they are testing something new, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to fail at the fundamentals.My free PDF, “The 5 Secrets of Impossibly Effective Teams,” will show you the simple leadership moves that help teams unlock their full potential and deliver outsized results—without burning out. Grab your copy now at geoffwelch.com/secrets