Why is it that some people learn from their mistakes and discover how to improve, while others seem to make the same mistakes over again? Let’s take learning capability off the table because they all got through school, passed tests and maybe even have their license. What explains the difference?

A recent study was conducted to determine why some people learn from their mistakes and others don’t. Christopher Meyers et. al. discovered that how people mentally process their failures determines to what degree they learn from them. Basically, the researchers found that when people are clear about and assume responsibility for something (low ambiguity), they process their failure internally and take action to avoid failure next time. Those who lack clarity of responsibility (high ambiguity) attribute the failure to something external to themselves, attributing the failure to something outside of their control.

So what “external attributions” do non-learners use?

“I gave the assignment to someone and they are still working on it.”

“I contacted the client but they haven’t gotten back to me.”

“I just ran out of time.”

“Something else came up that was more immediate.”

“Everyone’s really busy around here. I’ll get to it as soon as I can.”

“I’ve been waiting for the right time.”

“It just got away from me. I’ll get right on it.”

 Notice that all of these sound like reasons to the non-learners. They are real, do happen and could explain the failure. But also notice that these same reasons are heard by others as excuses. The goal is to get people (and yourself!) individually responsible and accept the fulfillment of the responsibility in spite of these challenges.

This week, examine your work. Get clarity for what you are responsible and avoid making the same mistakes again.