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.
My new book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, is still only in a draft state before final proofreading (actually, the proofreading is taking place now). UPDATE — the paperback and hardcover books are…
Designing a book cover is rarely a one-and-done decision. This post shares the iterative journey behind the book cover for The Mistakes That Make Us–a real-world example of experimenting, learning, getting feedback, and improving over time. If the book’s theme…
Now available for download and reading: A PDF preview of the Introduction and Chapter 1 of my upcoming (June 30: available now!) book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. This preview document has been…
Here is an update on the production and publication process for my new book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. It’s been copy edited. The Kindle version is basically ready for release. You can…
Thanks to my book coach Cathy Fyock for the “Ask Me About My Book” coffee mug and for the coaching she’s provided along the way for The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. She’s also provided me…
If you’re interested in my upcoming book (available June XX, date TBD), The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, the Kindle edition is available to be pre-ordered now through Amazon! The date is set as…
On Tuesday, May 2nd, I hosted a live event to reveal the full cover of my upcoming book The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. The Kindle version of the book is now available for…
I’m happy to announce that I’ve finished the manuscript for my upcoming book (a real one, not an April Fool’s Joke). The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation UPDATE — the paperback and hardcover books…
We all make mistakes. I feel like I’ve made more mistakes than usual this week — including a series of mistakes related to my Lean podcast that I released this morning. 1) I think I had the release date jotted…
I’ve mentioned before that I’m writing a book based on — inspired by — the interviews, stories, and insights from my guests on the My Favorite Mistake podcast. The book isn’t just a collection of transcripts of those stories. That…