Issue 231
What happens when you make a mistake? – it depends partly on your temperament. Those of a sensitive disposition may go into freefall with a cry of despair at their total inability to get anything right, with the view that this has been the story of their lives and that they are doomed to fail forever. Those who are bordering on the perfectionist may have extraordinary difficulty accepting that any mistake has been made at all, believing that mistakes don’t happen on their watch and that they have long grown out of such weaknesses.
The proud amongst us may lash out in anger, directed inwards or upwards or to the nearest person, whilst for the deluded there is the constant search for a scapegoat.
Have you noticed that the hands give away the temperament in relation to mistakes? We beat our breasts, cover our eyes, clench our fists or point our fingers either literally or metaphorically in response to mistakes. But there is a reaction which steers a pathway between extreme self torture and extreme self delusion. The hand gesture associated with it is to hold our hands up and admit the error. Whilst in some circumstances and for some people this may come more easily it is likely that all of us have our favourite strategies for handling our errors. We may seek to find mitigating circumstances such as tiredness, pressure, overwork or lack of information, resources and training. We may seek to negotiate using slightly less than honourable tactics or distort the nature of the story. But sometimes the fact is that the mistake has been made and this is the brutal and uncomfortable reality.
A while ago I was trying to handle such a mistake. To let it stand would have cost money and it appeared that there was no other way but to take the hit and put it down to what we grudgingly call experience.
In the particular case I made a phone call and spoke to a senior staff member at a well known company and asked if there was any way she could help. ‘There was’ I admitted ‘no business case for her to do anything – a mistake had been made’. I explained the context but gave no justification for it. The only way out was for her to respond with a good will gesture.
Sometimes in such circumstances one receives sympathetic words but the conversation ends with ‘the system won’t allow’ or ‘our procedures state’ or my hands are tied’. In this case the staff member concerned used her discretion and authority to fix the problem, provide a solution and backdate the correction. It was a brilliant outcome, saving money, embarrassment, disappointment and hassle and replacing it with help, encouragement and satisfaction.
Have you noticed how hand gestures play their part in solutions: a handshake, a finger pointing in the right direction or a hand on the shoulder? There is a workplace where hands are stretched out in pain and held to a piece of wood. At this place there is no business case for help, no bargaining position, no deal to be made. It is the place of good will gestures only. It is a place where only those who come with their own hands held up admitting their mistakes have any hope. There is no place for fists, finger-pointing or delusion. It is a place of honest reality.
At this place the person in authority uses his discretion, fixes the problem, provides a solution and backdates the correction. At this place it is more than your face that is saved.
Maybe the senior staff member accidentally followed the example of the Carpenter. Whether by accident or design it is a brilliant way of handling mistakes. It is another case of taking the cross of Christ to the heart of the workplace. Not to do so would be a big mistake.
Luke 18:9-14
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
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Geoff Shattock
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