Endorsements

“Dr. W. Edwards Deming told us to drive out fear. Toyota’s model is respect for people and continuous improvement. They go hand in hand. Hiding mistakes is the death of continuous improvement. In The Mistakes That Make Us, Mark Graban uses stories to delve deeply into the disease and gives us powerful suggestions for creating an environment that breeds trust and high performance.”

• Jeffrey Liker, author of The Toyota Way

“Another useful book from Mark Graban!  Creating the conditions to surface and learn from mistakes not only drives continuous improvement and innovation but also good jobs. In The Mistakes That Make Us, Mark Graban shows us how to get there. I found his lessons useful for business and life.”

• Zeynep Ton, Professor of the Practice at MIT Sloan, President of Good Jobs Institute, and author of The Case for Good Jobs, How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay & Meaning to Everyone’s Work

“Mark’s exploration of mistakes provides a new body of knowledge—both practical and psychological—for individuals and businesses alike to capitalize on. This book’s greatest power is in how Mark weaves in the tenets for success with real-world examples and lessons that readers can apply right away. It would be a mistake not to read this book!”

• Karen Martin, President & Founder TKMG, Inc. and TKMG Academy, Inc. and award-winning author of Clarity First and The Outstanding Organization.

“At Menlo Innovations, one of our favorite phrases is ‘Make Mistakes Faster!’ It’s not that we like making mistakes, we just prefer making small mistakes quickly rather than BIG mistakes slowly. The difference comes from creating a culture where we are safe to share our mistakes. In The Mistakes That Make Us, author Mark Graban teaches all of us how to do this and shares story after real story of the benefits. It would be a BIG mistake to ignore this wisdom!”

• Richard Sheridan, CEO & Chief Storyteller, Menlo Innovations, Author of Joy, Inc. – How We Built a Workplace People Love and Chief Joy Officer – How Great Leaders Elevate Human Energy and Eliminate Fear

“Finally, a book that goes beyond noting the importance of growth and improvement and shows how embracing mistakes can lead us there. The Mistakes That Make Us provides practical insights and real-world examples on how to foster a psychologically safe environment that encourages experimentation and innovation. The path to continuous improvement is there; learn how to embrace the bumpy road.”

• Ethan Burris, Ph.D., Niessa Professor of Management and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin

”Making mistakes is not a choice. Learning from them is. Whether we admit it or not, mistakes are the raw material of potential learning and the means by which we progress and move forward. Mark Graban’s The Mistakes That Make Us is a brilliant treatment of this topic that helps us frame mistakes properly, detach them from fear, and see them as expectations, not exceptions. This book’s ultimate contribution is helping us realize that creating a culture of productive mistake-making accelerates learning, confidence, and success.”

• Timothy R. Clark, PhD, Author of The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety, CEO of LeaderFactor

For decades, practitioners and researchers have highlighted the criticality of creating learning organizations.  Too often, however, all that advocacy misses or suppresses a key point: Learning depends first on admitting, “I just don’t know.” Until that’s confessed, there’s no void to fill with new discovery and insights, and no new ideas that can be put into better action. Instead, we’re stuck redoing what we’ve been doing, no matter how inadequate that has been.

Mark Graban has already made immeasurable contributions to our understanding about operational excellence, and he adds to that considerable value-add with The Mistakes That Make Us by detailing what it looks and feels like to admit flubs, mistakes, and errors, to say as a regular practice, “I just don’t know,” thereby building the foundation for greater accomplishments.”

• Steven J. Spear, DBA, senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and author of The High-Velocity Edge 

“In business, as in life, everyone makes mistakes. How we view and move on from mistakes can transform them from problems into opportunities for learning and growth. The Mistakes That Make Us delves into the ways we can use errors to help build and foster a culture of understanding and continuous improvement.”

• Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way

“Mark’s exhibition of errors, in The Mistakes That Make Us, not only acknowledges a core human experience that is frequently concealed but also fosters a feeling of togetherness among his audience, inspiring us to persevere in their pursuit of education and personal development.”

• Jim McCann, founder & chairman, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, INC.

“Through his podcast “My Favorite Mistake” and now his book The Mistakes that Make Us, Mark Graban has normalized the inherent human reality of making mistakes and has created the space and a framework for us to learn from them. The path to success is paved with mistakes. And – like the Japanese proverb ‘Fall down seven times, get up eight’ represents – what matters is how we get up from the setbacks that knock us off course and find a path forward. Mistakes only become failures if we don’t learn from them. We can all relate to — and learn from— the stories and insights in Mark’s book. The Mistakes that Make Us is your guide on how to get up when you fall down and to turn your mistakes into a source of learning – and a pathway to success.”

• Katie Anderson, leadership consultant and author of Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn

“At last! A book about errors, flubs, and screwups that pushes beyond platitudes and actually shows how to enlist our mistakes as engines of learning, growth, and progress. Dive into The Mistakes That Make Us and discover the secrets to nurturing a psychologically safe environment that encourages the small experiments that lead to big breakthroughs.”

• Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of DRIVE, WHEN, and THE POWER OF REGRET

“I can’t recommend Mark Graban’s book The Mistakes That Make Us enough. As someone who has made plenty of mistakes in my own life and career, I found this book to be a refreshing and honest take on the power of embracing and learning from our missteps. Mark’s candid storytelling and practical advice make this a must-read for anyone looking to navigate the ups and downs of their own journey.

Whether you’re just starting out in your career or a seasoned veteran, the book will inspire you to see failure not as something to be feared, but as an essential part of the path to success. This is a book I’ll be recommending to colleagues and friends for years to come.”

• Billy Ray Taylor, CEO of LinkedXL and Author of The Winning Link