The Wisdom of Deliberate Mistakes

Why Mistakes Are Necessary?

The potential gain greatly outweighs the cost of the mistake.

Decisions are made repeatedly.

The environment has dramatically changed.

Your organization’s experience with a problem is limited.

Failing Fast: How Mistakes Speed Learning

Which Mistakes to MakeHow do you distinguish between smart mistakes and dumb ones?

Identify assumptions.

Cold calling Fortune 100 prospects does not work. Our clients buy primarily on trust and reputation,

with limited price sensitivity. Young MBAs don’t work well for us; we need

experienced consultants on the team. Bundled pricing is better than separate pricing for

each of a project’s components. Senior partners must get more pay from their

billing bonuses than from their base salaries.

When to Make Mistakes

Formal interviews with clients must always be done by two consultants, with one taking notes.

The firm can be successfully run by a president who is not a senior consultant with significant billings.

Executive education and consulting are natural cross-selling activities.

Books and articles are vital to the firm’s image as cutting-edge and rigorous.

Responding to requests for proposals is not worthwhile, because organizations that send them out are usually price shopping or are just going through the motions to justify a choice that’s already been made.

Select assumptions for testing. Rank the assumptions. Create strategies for making mistakes. Execute the mistake Learn from the process.

Using Mistakes to Think at a Higher Level

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THANKS…………………