The Zero Defect Mentality

How many of you work in an environment that is not tolerant of any mistake? It’s the one and done culture. Make an error and you’re gone.The Zero Defect Mentality occurs in places where the leadership, the culture, or the prevailing belief is that mistakes will not be tolerated. This can be in the military or in the corporate world. I have been in them and they are not fun places to work.

No one really wants to fail or make a mistake. But the truth is that we do both. Often. Most of us fear failure. That fear often makes us cautious, hesitant, and indecisive, among other things. Those behaviors can lead to no decision being made, or bad decisions being made in the hope of minimizing the risk of failing and looking bad. And it is not just the failure that people fear, it’s also the consequences of it: getting fired, getting demoted, being humiliated, getting passed over for that promotion, and so on.

I believe the good leader will make sure his/her people understand that no one is perfect and mistakes can and will happen. And when those mistakes do occur they will be addressed but not in a Zero Defect Mentality sort of way. In my Navy career in aviation, the price of a mistake could be fatal. That is way less likely to be the case in the corporate world,. So a good leader will foster an environment that lets people know that making a mistake can be turned into a good learning opportunity and hopefully preventing a repeat of that mistake. Don’t get me wrong, there is a difference between and honest mistake and gross negligence, and the latter should have a bigger consequence.

History is full of people that made what would have been career ending mistakes were they in a Zero Defect Mentality organization but went on to do great things. Take a look at Chester Nimitz. As an ensign he ran a destroyer into a sand bar. I am sure he was the butt of a lot of jokes but he later went on to be the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet in WWII. How might that war have ended if his naval career had been cut short over that mistake?

I leave you with this thought. Failure is always an option. Do all you can to mitigate the risk of failure but don’t make the mistake of NOT addressing the possibility of failure. Even in the things in life where I succeeded I made many mistakes along the way. I am grateful for the leaders that made those mistakes into great lessons learned and didn’t foster the Zero Defect Mentality culture.