The Human Factor: Dealing with Mistakes Correctly

"Learning from mistakes!", "Mistakes are part of life!", "Nobody is perfect!", "To err is human!" – we all know these wisdoms. It has become common knowledge that a positive error culture is important for the success of a company. However, in practice, things often look different. No wonder: from childhood, mistakes are punished. Through bad grades, parental scolding, reprimands from the boss... And so we have adapted: avoiding and denying mistakes often consciously or unconsciously guide our thinking and actions. When a mistake does happen, our brain releases stress hormones and activates the area associated with "punishment". Stress and feelings of shame lead to increased susceptibility to errors. A downward spiral emerges, which aviation psychologists refer to as the "Poor Judgement Chain"; a vicious circle that is the cause of many airplane crashes. But how are mistakes dealt with in a profession where mistakes are not supposed to happen? Every mistake increases flight safety. Aviation simply cannot afford to make the same mistake twice. That is why no other industry delves as deeply into researching the causes of errors as aviation. For decades, every airplane accident has been meticulously analyzed. Not to find the guilty party, but to understand why the pilots behaved the way they did. To this day, error evaluations provide valuable insights into where a weakness in the system lies. Therefore, every mistake contributes to making flying safer. Our fundamental attitude towards mistakes must change before we can harness their potential. Two leading researchers in this field sum it up: "Let’s change the attitude from ‘I mustn’t make errors’ to ‘let me see what I can learn from this error’." These measures can also prevent future crashes in the corporate cockpit: Flight Safety Info: Learn from others' mistakes! Studies show: we learn more from others' mistakes than from our own. Doctors have "CIRS" (Critical Incident Reporting System), pilots have Flight Safety Info: They openly report their mistakes to allow others to participate in their learning process. Every company should have such a journal! Captain’s call: Leader as a good role model! A boss who openly shares failures with their employees not only appears confident and trustworthy, but also inspires their employees. It takes courage, but will astonish your surroundings! Multi-Crew Concept: Four eyes see more! In the cockpit, solo fighters are unthinkable. Actively seek advice! Request feedback! This is the strength of a team that you should leverage! Fail Award! Unsuccessful startup founders talk about their failures, innovative companies even award a prize for instructive mistakes. Studies show: employee motivation, satisfaction, and company success increase with a positive error culture. Why not regularly meet with your department and freely chat about your blunders? Lesson learnt: Create a "Learning Logbook"! Instead of getting upset, ask yourself: What can I learn from this mistake? Create a "Learning Logbook" and jot down the lesson from each mistake. Flip through it from time to time. This way, you only make each mistake once! No Blame Culture: Train instead of sanction! Even in the case of serious errors, a pilot receives training instead of punishment. Nobody makes mistakes intentionally. Therefore, the boss should listen rather than scold! "An expert is a person who has made all possible mistakes on a very limited field." - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and Nobel laureate For more information on our top speaker Philip Keil