You've Made A Mistake. Now What?

You've Made A Mistake. Now What? - Best Practices - Harvard Business Review

This article reminds me of a time when I was a very young assistant lacrosse coach at Harvard.  I had scouted some recruits and then had painstakingly put together a highlight reel for the head coach, the venerable Carole Kleinfelder, to review to see which athletes she thought worth recruiting.  She watched about 3 minutes of the 30 minute video, then turned it off and turned to me.  She flatly stated, "You missed the whole point." (she didn't mince words). She went on to explain to me that ALL of the potential recruits could do good things.  What she was more interested in seeing was what mistakes they made, and then how they recovered from them.  In her estimation, this was how to separate good high school athletes from great ones.  It is a great lesson, and one I haven't forgotten.