One of the best ways to boost Participation and Innovation on your Team is to make it a MISTAKE FREE ZONE.
How would YOUR contributions to a work team improve if you knew
you could not make a “Mistake”.
- No more fear of “getting it wrong” or things not working out as planned.
- No more Blaming
- No more Excuses
- No more justifying.
The key is in reframing “Mistakes” is to make the following
distinction with your team,
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“ON THIS TEAM, THERE ARE NO MISTAKES
… ONLY LEARNING EXPERIENCES”.
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Then, as their leader, you must LIVE this new philosophy.
As your team begins to operate in this Mistake Free
Environment…
When you hear fear of trying something new … or blaming or excuses you can call on the team to take responsibility for their learning rather than worry about being punished for their mistakes.
EXAMPLE: We have worked with companies whose team motto is, “Fail Fast,
Make the Save”. These businesses created a mistake-free
workplace and actually rewarded team members for taking new approaches and pointing out
where the new action plans were off track (Where they had “Failed”) so
that they could “Make the Save” by helping the team learn the
lessons imbedded in the experience.
Since the team knew the goal is to try lots of new ideas to speed the learning … and no one would be Blamed / Shamed or accused of Making a Mistake when things did not go as planned … new ideas and concepts and innovation flowed at full speed ahead.
Your Challenge:
Make your workplace a Mistake Free Zone. This one step
will make a HUGE difference in your team members willingness to
participate 110% AND in the creativity of their efforts.
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