Nothing is as anti-learning as the frantic effort to avoid making mistakes, because an exaggerated fear of making mistakes and, even more so, an ill-considered punishment of mistakes inhibit every form of development. Without analysing the causes, mistakes are automatically equated with inattention, failure and incompetence. Such a culture of mistakes, however, educates less to greater diligence than to fearfulness and despondency, which then promote avoidance and hedging behaviour. Fear and pressure create spreading restlessness and excitement in the human brain, which then become effective as inner tension, so that people avoid any experiments or new things. In this way, however, nothing new can be learned and anchored in the brain.
In the course of life, mistakes systematically contribute to the optimisation of our daily actions and often provide more insight than mere confirmation of expectations. In business, covered-up mistakes are time bombs, provided they are recognised, discussed and evaluated at all. Thus, the smallest mistakes can build up over time into incalculable time bombs.
Learning from mistakes