Comments on Lean Blog: The Many Errors in Thinking About Mistakes

The article is about individual learning, which is...

2007-12-13T09:14:00.000-06:00

The article is about individual learning, which is interesting in its own right, but organisational learning works in a different way.

New employees come into an organisation which has already learned some key points that can be taught through JI, but there will still be some key points to discover in some areas (especially in changed or new areas). Some will be discovered through error and others e.g. through scare reports and experimentation.

Scare reports are very proactive. They question the status quo regardless of whether there are any errors, and as such are opportunities for learning without error.

You make a great point there, that "we learn best ...

2007-12-04T08:32:00.000-06:00

You make a great point there, that "we learn best from mistakes" shouldn't be an excuse for crappy training.

I think we learn by making mistakes and that includes hands-on controlled training environments, like the TWI Job Instruction method. With JI, we don't just train in a classroom (lecture style) or give them a standardized work document. We observe and coach and point out the best way, if a mistake is made. With a trainer observing, a mistake can be contained from the customer. So, I don't think I'm arguing that mistakes MUST mean poor quality to the customer.

There's a difference between irresponsible mistakes and well-intended actions that caused a mistake. Let's say I got drunk and climbed on an icy roof to put Christmas lights up and I fell off. Not a smart mistake.

I think part of the discussion is not just about "planning vs. learning from mistakes" (which is like Womack's recent "planning vs. kaizen" discussion). Mistakes ARE going to happen. So do we have an environment where people are embarrassed and fear punishment (leading them to hide the mistake) or do we have an environment of team work and problem solving?

This subject often comes up during TWI Job Instruc...

2007-12-03T21:42:00.000-06:00

This subject often comes up during TWI Job Instruction class. Do we want people to learn by making mistakes, or by good training? Mistakes mean quality problems. Its hard to argue that quality should suffer in order to learn.

My take is that people should learn by good training that encourages good quality. The problem is most people do not do good training. The article mentions that people learned better when they were encouraged to make mistakes compared to people who learned by training. My question is what kind of training? Did the training get provided gradually in steps so as not to overwhelm? Did the training highlight the key points of the job that are key to a successful outcome? Did they provide the learner with the reasons why the key points are critical? These are the things we teach in TWI Job Instruction. And I'll stand up any of my students to anyone who thinks learning by trial-and-error is better.

Another view of mistakes comes from the scientific method. When we apply PDCA, we say to plan, then do. By PLAN, we mean we understand the problem and have a good hypothesis. DO means we are testing our hypothesis with an experiment. So if the outcome is not successful, perhaps we didn't put enough thought into our hypothesis.

A well developed hypothesis may help avoid a mistake. Many times mistakes are a result of failure to plan, and that no way to learn...especially when the customer gets left holding the bag (of defect).