Page 193 - The Voice of Authority

attendants flood in at the rate of about 3,000 a month.
These reports and “lessons learned,” selectively published
in a newsletter, are required reading for 150,000 pilots and
other aviation workers each month.
Freedman has singled out a few organizations bold
enough to use internal blogs and databases for such pur-
poses. Mayo Clinic, for example, has medical residents log
their mistakes or any other problems they see so the hos-
pital can analyze the errors and find solutions. The U.S.
Department of Energy is pushing its contractors to gather
and share goof-ups, and “lessons learned” databases are
accessible to employees and all other contractors.
Is self-reporting of mistakes standard practice in your
organization? Probably
not. But can you imagine
Publicize your positive the value of creating a safe
messages, of course. But place for employees to learn
also motivate people to from each others’ mistakes?
join any conversation Publicize your positive
that matters; this will messages, of course. But
eventually result in im- also motivate people to join
provements. any conversation that mat-
ters; this will eventually re-
sult in improvements.

Make Feedback an Obsession

Look into your lover’s eyes and whisper, “I love you” and
what do you expect to hear in return? Silence? If it hap-
pens often, the relationship’s in trouble. Yet every day that
awkward silence can be “heard” when people say to a boss,
“It’s done” and hear . . . silence in response. In one survey
of 1,727 respondents, only 47 percent of employees re-
ported receiving feedback at least once a week.

Is It Circular? 181