An explain article
Improving communication culture: What mistakes weaken presentations and collaboration
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My colleague recently took me to a 'Fuckup-Night'. If you're now raising your eyebrows and wondering what a 'Fuckup-Night' is, then you're just like me when I was spontaneously invited to one.
Fuckup-Nights are events where speakers from various fields talk about their mistakes, failures, flops—in short, their fuckups. Since the very first small event in 2012 in Mexico City, Fuckup-Nights have developed into a global movement and today are a licensed series of events represented in over 300 cities worldwide.
So far, so good. The special thing about this specific Fuckup-Night, however, is that it itself becomes a small fuckup when the first speaker is interrupted by the organizer after 40 minutes. She is politely informed that her presentation seems more like self-promotion and that she has paid far too little attention to the fuckups in her story. Around me, a heated discussion immediately ignites about whether the speaker had failed sufficiently or insufficiently. Whether personal or only professional failures play a role in qualifying as a fuckup?
I now only half-listen to the controversial debrief and instead ask myself what I would have to tell if I were on this stage. Would I talk about how I flunked in school at the age of 14? Or how I flunked again at 17? Would I talk about my insights? Like that I'm simply not made for rote learning, but that's often the only thing that counts in school? Or would I talk about how the first company I worked for in Berlin went bankrupt? Or maybe how the second company I worked for in Berlin went bankrupt? Would that be enough not to be asked to leave the stage?
During my mental digression, the next speaker has already taken the stage. He begins his presentation with the same fear that's currently on my mind. As he talks about his personal and professional fuckups—which are indeed sufficient to legitimize his presence on the stage—I let my gaze wander over the crowd.
The rooftop terrace in Berlin Mitte, where the event is taking place, is almost overflowing with the rush. I look at captivated faces that nod understandingly, sometimes laugh, sometimes look compassionately at the ground. What brings them all here? Why do they sit for hours listening to stories of failure? Is it perhaps about a kind of catharsis, participating in someone else's suffering and hoping for an internal cleansing as a result? Or is it perhaps more about the often lacking fault culture in German companies? That people desire openness and vulnerability, but so rarely encounter it in a professional context?
Talking about mistakes is anything but easy. We are usually accustomed to giving more attention to the mistakes of others than to our own. Confronting our own mistakes, however, is highly unsettling. Perhaps we're afraid to admit mistakes. Maybe we fear someone might hold us responsible for our failures. Maybe we don't want to be seen as weak. Whatever the reason—privately and professionally—we usually try to keep this unpleasant topic off the table.
However, since ancient times, wise minds have repeatedly dealt with the value mistakes can have in our lives if we are only willing to accept them as part of being human. "To err is human, but to persist in error is diabolical." Seneca pretty much hit the nail on the head with this. And Cicero with his famous saying "To admit is like medicine if we have erred," was trailblazing in his time. Only by being willing to admit our mistakes and openly confess them can we learn from them. This awareness is now on the rise again.
Companies should also be aware of this added value and foster an open and tolerant fault culture. My past experiences have shown that a lack of fault culture can also lead a company to fail. I've often witnessed questionable decisions made in the leadership that negatively impacted the company and employees. These poor decisions were never recognized as such, and attempts by employees to address such issues were not taken seriously. Most of the time, the reasons for failure were sought not in their own decisions but in external influences. This behavior was stubbornly maintained—until the mistakes repeated sooner or later. The long-term damages of such communication are foreseeable. The bankruptcies of two companies that I witnessed firsthand could have been avoided by acknowledging, analyzing, and evaluating the mistakes.
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Talking about mistakes is anything but easy.
The following three tips are intended to help you establish a lived fault culture in your company as well:
#01
Openly admit mistakes to yourself and also to your employees. Detrivialize mistakes in your company and encourage other employees to do the same.
#02
Not every mistake is equivalent to another. An open fault culture should not be associated with carelessness or negligence. Define a way of dealing with different types of mistakes.
#03
Create a platform that enables the exchange about mistakes and the development of corresponding measures. Only in this way can the error potential be optimally utilized and beneficial results achieved. Ensure that reporting is not one-sided: This platform only becomes truly valuable when employees from all hierarchies speak about their mistakes.