“To err is human…” At least that was the famous declaration made by Alexander Pope. Despite this bit of truth, many knowledge workers understand that our day-to-day roles leave little room for failure. We are expected to be experts in our field, and experts don’t make mistakes. We don’t make mistakes because mistakes cost the business money, create security vulnerabilities, and destabilize our systems.
But of course, we do make mistakes. If an engineer reviews their own two year old design and doesn’t cringe a little, that engineer hasn’t learned anything in the past two years. We all create less than perfect designs, or get left behind by the best practices for a period of time.
These realities raise the question -- how does your team handle the problems they discover? Does the blame game begin? Is there a witch hunt? Is the last person who left the team the scape goat for everything wrong in your systems? Do you spend hours creating documentation to explain the root cause of all possible effects? Even worse, does the team treat the errors like unexploded ordinance -- ignoring it, afraid that one misdirected breath will set it off?
As teams, we have to create room for errors when they occur. We must create space, a safety umbrella if you will, that acknowledges that we all occasionally make poor choices. Most importantly, we must focus on resolving the issue rather than creating a public display of punishment and shame.
How does your organization handle failure when it is discovered?