Learn from your mistakes - keep a lessons learnt journal
June 17th 2008 12:26
We all make mistakes. Yesterday in my new jobs I made my first major mistake mis-quoting the taxes required for a return flight from Sydney to London. This mistake is going to cost me $300 which thankfully is not too bad, however it's one that I don't intend to make again in the future. Ever.
Any good managers will know that making mistakes is only natural, especially in your early days with your job. There are two ways we can learn, we learn methods to avoid mistakes, or we make a mistake, and learn from the consequences.
Learning from the consequences is probably a more powerful (although, less preferred because it means you have to fix it) method of learning. When you make a mistake and it carries serious consequences, you will forever remember what happened and everytime something similar comes up, a little trigger in your memory will help you stop doing the same thing over again.
One way of making sure you don't make the same mistakes twice, is to keep a "Lessons Learnt Journal" - this is a method used by Project Managers to document what went wrong and what would have been done better in the project to ensure the next time he/she does a similar project that the same issues do not repeat again.
This method can be used by us with our daily job to make sure we remember our mistakes. In the journal, it is important to write down what happened (as a case study), the consequence if any and how it could have been avoided. It is also useful to write down how you fixed the problem for future reference.
Not only can the journal help you think about your next steps, it is also a great document to pass onto the next person for the job should you decide to leave your job one day. This is a passive training that can become quite valuable and something that cannot be gained from another person in the team because they haven't been through the same mistakes as you.
Then, all you have to remember is: never to do it again. Or at least, refer to your journal to see how you can best avoid a serious consequence.
Any good managers will know that making mistakes is only natural, especially in your early days with your job. There are two ways we can learn, we learn methods to avoid mistakes, or we make a mistake, and learn from the consequences.
Learning from the consequences is probably a more powerful (although, less preferred because it means you have to fix it) method of learning. When you make a mistake and it carries serious consequences, you will forever remember what happened and everytime something similar comes up, a little trigger in your memory will help you stop doing the same thing over again.
One way of making sure you don't make the same mistakes twice, is to keep a "Lessons Learnt Journal" - this is a method used by Project Managers to document what went wrong and what would have been done better in the project to ensure the next time he/she does a similar project that the same issues do not repeat again.
This method can be used by us with our daily job to make sure we remember our mistakes. In the journal, it is important to write down what happened (as a case study), the consequence if any and how it could have been avoided. It is also useful to write down how you fixed the problem for future reference.
Not only can the journal help you think about your next steps, it is also a great document to pass onto the next person for the job should you decide to leave your job one day. This is a passive training that can become quite valuable and something that cannot be gained from another person in the team because they haven't been through the same mistakes as you.
Then, all you have to remember is: never to do it again. Or at least, refer to your journal to see how you can best avoid a serious consequence.
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