The Mistakes That Make Us · Mark Graban
A mistake can become a lesson—or a problem that happens again.
What happens next depends on how people respond. The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation helps leaders make it safer to admit mistakes, learn from them, and improve the systems behind them.
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Mark’s third Shingo-recognized book, following Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen. Read endorsements · Read reviews
The costly mistake is the one nobody learns from.
When people expect blame, they have a reason to hide problems. When leaders respond with curiosity and follow through on improvement, people have a reason to speak up. The response to one mistake helps shape whether you hear about the next one.
This book explores learning from mistakes at work through stories from Mark’s My Favorite Mistake podcast and his experience in manufacturing, healthcare, and technology. You’ll meet leaders from Toyota and KaiNexus, former U.S. Representative Will Hurd, Shark Tank’s Kevin Harrington, and even whiskey distillers.
Make your next response more useful
Help people speak up
Build psychological safety so mistakes and concerns can surface while there’s still an opportunity to act.
Learn what happened
Respond with kindness and curiosity. Look beyond blame to understand how the work and its systems contributed.
Prevent the repeat
Use problem-solving, mistake-proofing, and small experiments to turn a lesson into a better way of working.
Learning from mistakes does not mean ignoring them or lowering standards. It means taking responsibility for understanding what happened and improving what happens next.
For people who shape how a team responds
Executives, managers, team leaders, entrepreneurs, and HR, learning, and improvement professionals can use these ideas. You don’t need to run the organization to influence the next conversation.
If mistakes are hidden, repeated, or met with finger-pointing, start with a different question: What would help us learn—and make this less likely to happen again?
Inside the book
- Think Positively
- Admit Mistakes
- Be Kind
- Prevent Mistakes
- Help Everyone to Speak Up
- Choose Improvement, Not Punishment
- Iterate Your Way to Success
- Cultivate Forever
Also includes an Afterword, End Notes, and a List of Podcast Guests Mentioned in the Book.
Watch Mark’s book overview · Meet the author
Try a chapter. Think of one conversation you could change.
Read a sample and consider how you might respond differently the next time someone brings you a mistake.
Choose how you read
KindlePaperback on AmazonHardcover on AmazonAudiobookBookshop.orgLeanpub
Reading together? Explore bulk orders or bring the ideas to your event.