Commissions, Omissions, and Learning

Cutting my son’s hair taught me about mistakes.

I removed the bowl from my son’s head and admired my handiwork. The perfect bowl cut.

As my wife entered the kitchen, she gasped: “What did you do?!”

“Doesn’t he look great?”, I smiled.

“Only if your definition of ‘great’ is Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber”, she quipped.

“His hair was poking his eyes - I had to do something!”

“Doing nothing would have been better than this monstrous mistake. My poor son!”

Something in my head clicked.

Ackoff categorises mistakes into two types: commission (invalid actions - doing what should not have been done), and omission (invalid inactions - not doing what should have been done).

There are two interesting aspects to mistakes.

Firstly, errors of commission (invalid actions) are the most visible, and therefore the most reprimanded. These are the wrong answers for which we punish school kids, and the wrong investment decisions for which we punish managers.

However, it’s the errors of omission (invalid inactions) that are more critical - and these often go unrecorded.

Ackoff cites an example:

“When Kodak bought Sterling Drug - an error of commission — it eventually had to unload it at a considerable cost. It did not have the competence to conduct a pharmaceutical business.

“When Kodak failed to take digital photography seriously - an error of omission - a much more serious mistake was made for which it will be paying for a very long time.”

So, whilst we punish managers for doing what they should not have done (invalid actions), organisations fail more frequently for not doing what they should have done (invalid inactions).

Secondly, we only learn when an action leads to unexpected results. Continues Ackoff: “all learning ultimately derives from mistakes. When we do something right, we already know how to do it; the most we get out of it is confirmation of our rightness.

“Since mistakes are a no-no in most corporations, and the only mistakes identified and measured are ones involving doing something that should not have been done [invalid actions], the best strategy for managers is to do as little as possible.”

So, reprimanding mistakes encourages inaction and inhibits learning.

The takeaway? Counter-intuitively, fewer mistakes (and better haircuts) comes from a greater tolerance of mistakes, whilst maximising the learning derived from them.

This article was inspired by Ackoff’s Differences That Make a Difference and A major mistake that managers make. Quotes adapted for brevity. Image from Tenor.