I have a love / hate relationship with mistake making … errors … failures. I try to teach others that mistake making is the only way we truly learn. Yet, I still hate making mistakes. Worse yet, I hate to admit them. But I have tried to remind myself how important it is to own mistakes when they happen. Hiding mistakes works in very rare occasions. In most instances, it comes back to bite you. Even worse, blaming your mistakes on someone else creates a culture that is toxic.
My good friend, Dave Bair, always says that learning is the ability to detect and correct errors and that the goal is to do this at ever-increasing rates of speed and with precision. I agree that the most valuable lessons learned in life weren’t from ’getting it right.’ Rather, the best teachers were lessons taught when I got it wrong.
I read a news article this morning that drove home this point. It was an article about the distribution of the Phizer COVID-19 vaccine. States found that they were getting quantities 40 percent less than was expected. Finally, Gen. Gustave Perna, COO for Operation Warp Speed spoke up and explained the confusion. And he owned the mistake.
“At the end of the day, I accept responsibility for the miscommunication,” he said.
“Where I failed – I failed, nobody else failed – is to have a clear understanding of that cadence.
Weiss, E. (2020). “States were left scrambling after finding out they’d get 20-40% less vaccine that promised. We now know why” (USA Today, 19 December 2020).
I don’t know Gen. Perna and wouldn’t recognize him I saw him on a news program, yet I immediately have mad respect for the man. Anyone who can publicly and simply say, “That was my mistake; I own it.” That man is worthy of respect in my opinion.
While I’m sure Perna doesn’t revel in the mistake he made, I think we can all learn something from it. How different would our world be if people could simply say, “Yeah, that was my fault. I own that.” No defensiveness. No debate. No blaming. Just honest, sincere admission of the mistakes that we all make. Own it. Grow from it. And move on.
I think the world … our political environment … our relationships … might just be a bit better off if we were to begin to follow Perna’s example. I’m trying to become better at this. I hope you will join me.
