Do not fear mistakes, they are opportunities to learn and the fear can impact effective decision making.
Did you know there is an official phobia of mistakes or errors? Errataphobia is the name of the phobia. As per the description on the Phobia Wiki page it can have crippling physical affects for true errataphobes. The phobia typically originates from an extreme event in the past. The majority of people do not have this level of fear.
So why do people still fear making the wrong decision and making mistakes?
In my experience I have observed several reasons. The most common reason is due to people not wanting to be held responsible or accountable. This is common where there is a lack of trust in the work culture or finger pointing and blaming culture. It can also be due to having strong job ranks and levels. The quote “it’s above my pay grade” is an example of this. It is used as an excuse for not taking initiative and making decisions so they can not be held responsible.
The other reason for fearing mistakes that I have observed is ego and reputation. It is usually in individuals that are ladder climbers that think that making mistakes will impact their career advancement.
Either situation can lead to analysis paralysis which is not a good situation when you have project milestones to meet. At some point you have to take an educated risk of making a decision with the information at hand. You have to move forward and cannot allow the fear to impact and delay the decision making process.
Minimising the fear of mistakes to move forward
Project managers we are faced with making and facilitating many decisions a day. They often need to be made when there is a high level of uncertainty. How do we recognise fear of making mistakes so we can avoid the issues? The biggest indicators I have seen are recurring discussions in meetings that go round in circles with no conclusion. Due to no conclusion being reached decisions are typically postponed to the next meeting.
In this situation I will summarise the information available for the team with risks and opportunities. I will then propose a direction forward. based on the information at hand. I will then work towards a achieving a consensus vote on the proposed direction and decisions. It then becomes a group decision and it is not all on one person. By making it a group decision (and noting it as such in meeting minutes) it spreads the responsibility and accountability. This diminishes the fear of making a mistake and removes the need for more analysis.
Moving past mistakes
Personally I do not like making mistakes because I do not like wasting effort and having to redo work . However I know that some times despite best intentions decisions turn out not to be the best and mistakes happen. My advice for when it was your own decision is to accept responsibility. I have found that when you stand up and say “yes that was my decision” and own what has happened. People tend to respect that and move forward. It also removes the opportunity for people to assign blame and dwell on it. The next thing to do is learn from the mistake and find solutions for now and mitigations for the future.
When it was a team decision that was non optimal the process is the same as for a personal one. The difference being that you need to facilitate the teams acknowledgement of group responsibility. Then move on to finding solutions and lessons learned.
Project Managers do not fear mistakes, they ensure timely decisions are made and projects move forward.
Written by Lachlan Mollison – Decision facilitator and maker
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