Mistakes, building trust and creating space for growth

By Dr Emma Waters, Researcher Development Specialist (PGRs)

Acknowledging and accepting failure is an increasingly common discussion amongst researchers and academics. Whether it’s a rejected grant application, paper or unsuccessful job or fellowship application, good research culture encourages openness, discussion and acknowledgment that failure is part of the sometime wonky journey to success in our careers.

I’ve seen firsthand, the impact on doctoral researchers of successful academics openly sharing the failures they have experienced.  One Professor displayed every rejection letter they received over their 30-year career as part of our annual PGR Induction. Through opportunities like these they realise that this is a normal part of a research career. 

Failures, though difficult, are often still the result of good work and give an opportunity for development. While they sting, negative feelings that arise from these rejections are often focussed on the outcome rather than our actions that lead up to them.

But what about mistakes? 

Every human being I have met makes mistakes. Perhaps like me you beat yourself up over mistakes and feel an overwhelming need to confess and immediately rectify them. If you’re like me, I hope you’ve also experienced leadership that supports you through mistakes, that asks “how do we fix this as a team” rather “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”.

Leaders in Higher Education are important players in fostering cultures that support transparency, integrity and psychological safety, equipping teams to respond to both failures and mistakes. Creating this culture takes intentional action and reflection on leadership practice.

The fear of making mistakes is one that’s plagued me since being an undergraduate and as such it’s something I’m very aware of in my teaching practice. From my time teaching undergraduates to now working with the PGR community I have landed on three ways that teachers, supervisors, mentors and leaders can create and support a positive culture around mistakes. I invite you to consider how these methods could benefit your own leadership practice in professional spaces, supervision and teaching.

Creating safe spaces to try and fail

Before moving into the Research Professional space, I was a Lecturer of Earth Sciences. Part of the job was taking students on field trips, often in rural Scotland to learn to conduct geological fieldwork. The traditional method involves sending students out to put theory into practice and then hand in their work to be assessed, Contributing to their final grade. As a previous failure fearing undergraduate, I can tell you I found this terrifying.

This created a culture where students always wanted to consult with lecturers before making a decision, which did not support development of their independence. The single greatest change we made on fieldtrips was to create opportunities for students to try and hand in work for feedback without formal assessment. This change boosted confidence and allowed students to face the assessed work more independently and more confidently.

By creating safe opportunities for people to try in a low-stakes environment you make the reality of trying something new safer and making a mistake more tolerable. It offers the opportunity to reflect and learn from mistakes without fear of grave consequence. Ultimately it sets those we lead up for success in settings when mistakes have greater consequences.

Setting up for success

While a dress rehearsal would be ideal for everything that spikes nerves, this is not always possible. Instrument time is expensive and sometimes hard to get, focus groups mean working with research participants in the real world and large events are logistically challenging to test run at scale.

As leaders we can still support those in our team when there is no safe space to try in advance. Firstly, we can acknowledge that something we are experienced in was once something we had to learn and be open this. The old cliché of teaching that “there are no stupid questions” only holds true when those we teach do not worry that they’ll be judged for asking the question.

A conversation ahead of the event can create a space where people feel comfortable to open up about their worries, allow space for questions about what they don’t know (and what they don’t know they don’t know!) and help prevent mistakes. For example:

• What do they know and what do they not know about conducting a methodology?
• Is there someone with more experience who can support them starting out? Would they benefit from someone mentoring?
• If you are teaching a methodology, can you be intentional about explaining what you are doing and why? What level of instruction is useful for them?
• Is there a written guide you could create together? How would this help others in your team in the future?
• Can you build in more regular check-ins as they start the work?
• Does your team member feel they are able to stop and consult you if they are unsure?

I experienced this kind of support as a PhD student from a Senior Technician who took me under his wing when I started using the multi-million-pound instrument in our department. His ability to take a step back and take an interest in teaching me not just what buttons to press but why we were doing things and encouraging me to ask ALL the questions, meant I was confident in doing the work and comfortable consulting him when uncertain. 

Managing the mistake

Despite the dry runs and the preparations, mistakes and failure will still happen. It might be something unexpected or something we didn’t even realise was a mistake when we took the action. This is where how leaders manage mistakes becomes important. 

If we’ve put the work in to create a safe space for failure and open questions for preparation, then why not finish the job and lay the foundations to manage failure or mistakes. A leader who guides their team to resolve mistakes and process failure or disappointment creates a culture of openness and learning which enables all in the team who thrive and grow together. 

Reflecting on how we respond to mistakes helps us to create intention for our practice and develop how we lead others:

• How do you respond to mistakes as a leader? 
• What does it mean to respond with a solution focussed mindset? 
• Do your team feel safe to tell you if they’ve made a mistake? 

Mistakes happen throughout our working lives, as leaders we can create a culture where those we lead and work with feel supported to do the best work possible through practice and preparation and no matter the outcome mistakes that do happen can be dealt with together. As leaders reflecting on how we intentionally build and support this culture helps our teams and the work they do to thrive.