NASA’s My Best Mistake

I was recently going through my office library trying unsuccessfully to find space for a book I had just purchased, when I came across a tiny booklet I acquired in one of my many interactions with the great folks over at NASA. It’s called My Best Mistake: Stories of Learning Lessons from the NASA Workforce. When I first got it, I remember being struct by the tittle: My best mistake? How could there be a good mistake? Over the years I have used that part of the title in my workshops to talk about stories of failure.

Organizations rarely tell stories of failure; as a matter of fact, even for people it’s very hard to acknowledge their mistakes. In many organizations, failure is a sign of weakness and vulnerability that would give an advantage to a competitor or an adversary. Furthermore, failure must not be aired publicly; it must be kept quiet, away from prying eyes. What these organizations fail to see is the awesome power of stories of failure. The power is not in the failure, but in the opportunities and lessons it provides to improve and ultimately succeed. This is what NASA has captured in that treasure trove of a booklet! We must not only tell stories of success and great accomplishment, but stories of failure, challenge, difficulty, hardship, not out of a sense of morbid enjoyment, but because the knowledge inherent in those difficult experiences is essential to make the changes that bring improvement and eventual success.

Stories of failure are important because in many ways they are the precursors of the stories of success. When audiences see and hear our vulnerability and the challenges we face, they are not only more likely to connect with us, but they are more likely to embrace our stories, because imperfection is the one thing that binds us all as human beings.

So, you may ask, what is the best mistake? The best mistake is the one that got you over the finish line; the one that became an Aha! moment; the one that made it possible for you to finally succeed. In your daily work life, or your personal life, can you point out to your best mistake? What was it? Why is it your best mistake? What did you learn? And most importantly, what did you teach? If you can think of an episode or an experience that is your best mistake, craft it into a story and tell it to someone. You will see how much you learn about yourself and about others in the process.

Last year I joined NASA’s Small Steps, Giant Leaps podcast in two sessions on technical storytelling. In part 2, I spoke with three specialists about some of the lessons they learned while working on the Morpheus Project. Listen to it here: https://lnkd.in/e95JPVA