Mistakes are a part of life and they happen with great frequency no matter how experienced we are. The good news is that making mistakes is an essential part of learning and achievement. Once we make a mistake, we have the chance to course correct and do better on the next attempt.
Sometimes, unwittingly, we make the same mistake over and over. Like when we allow the same person to let us down repeatedly. Or when we continue to invest in a strategy that fails to produce results.
When you make a mistake twice, it becomes a decision. So said Paulo Coelho. What that means is that when we falsely cling to optimism over reality, we are consciously choosing to ignore the facts before us. We are consciously failing to learn.
Good leaders make every attempt to learn and not allow mistakes to repeat themselves by presuming the same choice will produce a different outcome. Don’t let your mistakes become decisions by ignoring the facts. Accept your mistakes and learn from them. Don’t make the decision to make them again.
This is a particularly important notion -- for life as well as leadership.
"presuming the same choice will produce a different outcome"
"decision making process can be evaluated independently of the outcomes"
Holding these two principles as true at the same time has some tension.
Sounds like failing to evaluate properly will ruin the mixture every time.