Handling Mistakes
One of the things that will determine growth in an organization is the way mistakes and failures are looked at.
Around two years ago, I was presenting at an internal conference in Thoughtworks along with my teammate. It was her first time presenting in front of a big audience and she was understandably nervous.
During the presentation, she forgot what she was about to say and completely froze. I didn't know what to do to encourage her but thankfully I didn't have to.
The entire audience started clapping and shouting words of encouragement. A 150-strong audience cheering for you when you are stuck can do wonders. My teammate was able to continue and we finished to a full minute of applause.
Still gives me goosebumps when I think of it.
If you are looking to build a great org culture, this is how mistakes and failure should be handled. Not with shame and blame, but with encouragement and celebration.
About the author
Senior Application Developer and Full Stack Engineer at Thoughtworks with almost a decade of experience working primarily as a Backend & DevOps Engineer. I've worked on Ruby & C# projects and am currently working on a Python one. I am an AWS Certified Solutions Architect and an Oracle Certified Cloud Infrastructure Architect at an Associate level. I also have reasonable experience working on GCP, primarily with Google Kubernetes Engine.
I'm also an aspiring public speaker who likes to give talks on soft skills and tech.
I also write blogs on various psychological aspects of work primarily to improve teamwork & interpersonal skills.
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