LEARN
Something Worth SharingPlayful Mistakes
Hands up who spotted my mistake two weeks ago…who spotted that I made the mistake in the date on my LEAPS email; rather than it being 06.03.2024, it said 06.01.2024. When I realised this error I felt silly and beat myself up a little. I then wondered who had spotted it and what those people thought of me - would you think badly of me, would you want to unsubscribe?…and so on. Making mistakes is normal and yet we can all get worried about the prospect of error-making. Some of us more than others! This made me think about the importance of mistakes for us as individuals, in relationships, in businesses and in life. By getting things wrong, we can improve our skills and grow in various ways. In childhood, we are expected to make mistakes; we fall when learning to walk, we confuse language - calling a dog a cat and blue as red - we put the square shape block in the triangular hole, we draw stick people with 3 fingers and colour outside the line etc. We learn from our mistakes, we improve and flourish. At some point in our development, we switch to see mistakes as harmful, bad, dangerous and as failure. There is certainly more at stake for adults making mistakes, but if we dismiss all mistakes as negative, we limit our potential. The trick to this is ‘play’. Building and nurturing environments and cultures of play - and the mindset of play - allows us to encourage mistakes while reframing them as an opportunity to learn and grow. Mistakes can unite a team Mistakes can help build trust Mistakes can develop humility and compassion Mistakes can lead to happy and unexpected opportunities Mistakes can support innovation and creativity
How do you perceive making mistakes? And how do you judge the mistakes of others? Besides, who doesn’t make mistakes? I guess the greatest learning is that failing to take advantage of the opportunities mistakes present may be the biggest mistake of all.
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