TL;DR: Mistakes don’t define organizations—how leaders respond to them does.
The Mistakes That Make Us explores how individuals, teams, and organizations can learn from errors instead of hiding them, blaming people, or repeating the same failures. This archive brings together posts, podcast episodes, giveaways, translations, and events connected to the book The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation.
Across industries including healthcare, manufacturing, aviation, and technology, these posts examine psychological safety, leadership behavior, system design, and the conditions that make learning possible. The focus is not on avoiding mistakes at all costs—but on responding to them in ways that build trust, capability, and continuous improvement.
For leaders, this collection reinforces a simple truth: mistakes are inevitable, but learning is a choice.
Three years ago, The Mistakes That Make Us came out. Around the same time, Elisabeth Swan published Picture Yourself a Leader. Both books’ third birthdays felt like a decent reason to get together and talk together and bring in some…
Want to start 2026 with a better mindset around leadership, culture, and continuous improvement? As we begin the year, it’s a natural time to reflect–not just on what went well last year, but also on what didn’t, and what we…
It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since my Shingo Award-winning book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, was published. What started as a podcast–My Favorite Mistake–grew into a book grounded in one powerful…
I’ve written about the AI translations before, but I wanted to mention again that my award-winning book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, is now available in Spanish — thanks to a high-quality AI-powered…
TL;DR: A new poll shows that psychological safety at work is often fragile–nearly half of respondents say it “depends on the boss.” Real improvement requires leaders who respond to mistakes with curiosity, consistency, and follow-through. When someone on your team…
Register via Eventbrite I’m excited to announce that I’ll be participating in the upcoming 4th Rendez-vous Kata, a unique and bilingual (French and English) event that brings together leaders, learners, and kata practitioners from around the world. This year’s theme…
I’m excited to announce a special giveaway for Lean Blog readers! To celebrate the impact of learning from mistakes and the importance of psychological safety in continuous improvement, I’m giving away a signed copy of my latest book, The Mistakes…
Thanks to Audible, I am giving away ten audiobook copies of my book The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. You can enter to win an audiobook copy here. The contest is open until next…
I’m very excited to announce that my latest book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, has been officially selected as a recipient of the Shingo Publication Award by the Shingo Institute (the home of…
I’ve used the LeanPub.com publishing platform for a long time. I initially published Practicing Lean and Measures of Success as iterative “in progress” books that people could buy while I was still adding chapters and making revisions. Those books are…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Welcome to this bonus session of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast, originally recorded as a LinkedIn Live event! In this conversation, I partnered with Rebecca Michalik from AME Australia to discuss…
I’m doing another book giveaway contest — enter to win a signed paperback copy of my book The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. Because of high international shipping costs, I’ve limited previous contests to…
