On this episode of NS Builders Podcast, Ken DeCost and I discuss the value of lessons learned in life and on the job. There are two opposing schools of thought: Is it more valuable to learn from a mistake you made or a lesson taught by someone else?   

Here’s what we came up with.

THE HARD WAY

So the first way is the hard way—meaning you learn from your own mistakes and think: “That was stupid! I’ll never do that again!” A lesson was learned, but you suffered the consequences of making a bad decision. It’s a hard way to learn—your mistake may cost you financially, waste time, damage your reputation, or even result in injury. 

But these lessons that come with a price often are the ones you’ll never forget. Pain has a way of doing that to a person—searing it into your consciousness and warning you the next time you even start to think in that direction. It’s kind of like when your parents warned you not to drive fast or else you could end up in a car accident. You heard them, you grasped the concept, but it wasn’t until you were taking that corner way too fast, overcorrected, and nearly missed the guardrail on the opposite side of the road before you really learned the lesson. You experienced what they told you and now had the context to impress it on your mind.   

Going through the motions of learning something new by making mistakes and figuring it out on your own can be very valuable. That being said, it’s called the hard way for a reason. This leads to the other school of thought—learning lessons from others. 

LEARNING FROM THE MISTAKES OF OTHERS

We’re human—we all make mistakes. But we can avoid some pain in life by being humble enough to learn from the mistakes of others. This is especially true on the job. If you have a position of oversight, you will have greater success training others if you explain the reason behind the direction. For example, present the scenario and give specific examples of what could go wrong if the proper procedure isn’t followed. Explain the consequences of skipping a step or ignoring safety protocol. Then provide real-life examples of what happened when someone made the mistake of doing it the wrong way. Reason with your listeners on how they can learn from these examples.  

Communication is the key—talk to your team, or listen carefully when being instructed. If everyone shares the same goal of continual improvement in skills and workmanship, the focus will be on minimizing the number of mistakes and not repeating them. Don’t be the boss who just demands something be done a certain way. Be a leader and explain the reasoning behind it and how it benefits the whole team and project. 

LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN

Never underestimate the value of lessons learned by either making a mistake yourself or learning from the past mistakes of others. Either way, there is a golden opportunity open to you to learn what NOT to do next time and the chance to sit down and thoughtfully consider a better way to do it going forward. Calling out your own mistake or that of someone else on the team shouldn’t be done to cause shame; it’s a time to teach and generate new ideas on tackling the situation next time. 

Openly discussing near-misses (those instances where an accident was narrowly averted but could have resulted in causing either bodily injury or damage to the product) are extremely valuable opportunities for everyone involved to learn how to work more safely.

SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING

Creating a work environment where the culture of safety is a top priority will allow employees and subs working under your direction to feel free to “see something, say something” when it comes to unsafe work practices. No matter how many years we have been doing this job or how well we know a product or tool, don’t let pride be your downfall if someone is kind enough to bring to your attention something you are doing that could hurt you or those around you. 

To wrap up—you can learn valuable lessons from the mistakes you make and learn from the mistakes of others. It’s what you choose to do with those lessons learned that will make all the difference. 

It’s time to discover what NS Builders can intentionally craft for you! Contact us today to get started on your custom dream home. Together, we can make it happen. 

—Nick Schiffer