The Mistake Bank

Forum

John Caddell

Hiring mistakes (contest stories)

Started by John Caddell Jul 29.

Shawn Callahan

Customer service mistakes 2 Replies

Started by Shawn Callahan. Last reply by Caroline Jul 26.

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Aims and Guidelines

"Errors are the portals of discovery." James Joyce

The Mistake Bank is a place to share stories of mistakes people have made in their lives and careers. Please contribute videos or blog posts recounting your mistakes that you think others could learn from. Start a forum topic or participate in an existing forum.

Please comment on and share the entries. Invite others to join. All are welcome. Sharing mistakes is a gift--please honor that by keeping your comments constructive and civil.

Regards, John

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Mistake Stories - Audio

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Latest Activity

on Wednesday
on Tuesday
gregg gullickson added a blog post
I almost lost some fingers once. Another Navy story. While in the North Arabian Sea (NAS) right after the Shah fell we were getting bored waiting for taskings from on high (we spent 120 days in the NAS but were never called into action - the next ...
on Tuesday
Judy Rosemarin and kathleen daniel joined The Mistake Bank
on Tuesday
on Tuesday
kathleen daniel added a video:
This is a true story that takes place in Germany, Lübeck area. In 1993, Kathleen, an American, singer, artist, was denied a Citibank account because she did...
on Tuesday
on Monday
on Monday

Blog Posts

gregg gullickson

I almost lost some fingers once ...

I almost lost some fingers once. Another Navy story. While in the North Arabian Sea (NAS) right after the Shah fell we were getting bored waiting for taskings from on high (we spent 120 days in the NAS but were never called into action - the next group participated in the aborted hostage rescue opreations). So our Admiral suggested some fun and games - one being turning motor whaleboats into sail boats and having a race between the three ships in the task group (Sterret (my ship), Waddell, and B… Continue

Posted by gregg gullickson on November 17, 2009 at 12:09pm

John Caddell

Standalone innovation group creates "organ rejection"

At the last company I worked for I had the opportunity to create one of those innovation groups - a Strategic Markets function the job of which was to get our company into new, growing markets leveraging the processes we had with new technology - using partnerships to move more quickly than developing our own technology.

We had 10 folks, in marketing, product management, implementation and sales.

The biggest mistake I made was viewing it as a destination in itself. I saw it growing to become a… Continue

Posted by John Caddell on November 11, 2009 at 12:08pm

John Caddell

The customer likes what we're doing for them... or do they?

Some years ago, our company supplied billing services for a mid-sized telecom provider. It was old technology, and we were very interested in migrating them over to a new platform we’d just begun to offer. They were referenceable and complimentary of our work with them. The IT group, our liaison, was happy to set up a meeting with the various groups that would be involved in a decision to change platforms.

At that meeting we learned the other groups didn’t hold us in such high esteem. Not only… Continue

Posted by John Caddell on October 21, 2009 at 2:22pm

John Caddell

Link to Doctoral Dissertation on the VA's Apology & Disclosure Program

I've only had the chance to read the abstract, but the doctoral dissertaton of Heather Carmack, of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University, looks like a treasure trove of insight on mistakes, apologies, the health care system, use of narratives and sensemaking. I I can't wait to read the other 352 pages (!).… Continue

Posted by John Caddell on September 25, 2009 at 10:32am

lakshman

Set Expectations based on current facts rather than history

The title might seem fundamental but as a manager, I had a really hard time dealing with this fact. Past success seemed to be a powerful screen hiding current challenges. We have built many products and executed many projects successfully, some even with certain components not tried before. Trying to emulate the same in every assignment, I made this terrible mistake of relying heavily upon "averages" of past data to set expectations for current and future projects unmindful of the fact that the… Continue

Posted by lakshman on September 11, 2009 at 9:30am

 
 

About

John Caddell John Caddell created this social network on Ning.

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A note on privacy

This network is open to anyone to join, but the posts, videos, etc., are only available to members. Search engines do not have access to the data on the site other than the main page.

This I hope will provide the safety people need to share stories. And, with the efforts of everyone who shares mistake stories, perhaps we can do a small part to reduce the stigma of making mistakes.

Which, of course, is something everyone does--especially, I am learning, prominent, successful people.

Regards, John

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