The Story Behind the Mistake Training Exercise

Purpose

This exercise builds a growth mindset, encourages psychological safety and promotes a culture of vulnerability and learning. It helps delegates understand that mistakes can be powerful opportunities for development when shared and reflected on in a supportive environment. This exercise on reframing failure for growth and learning is not just about confessing errors, it is about building a shared language of learning. By depersonalising mistakes and making room for group reflection, you reduce fear of failure and encourage honesty, empathy and leadership that learns. Ideal for management skills, team building, resilience and trust.

Objective

Delegates will anonymously submit real-life professional mistakes. These are read aloud and discussed as a group. The focus is on extracting lessons, offering reframes and supporting a shift from blame to insight.

What You Need

• Small slips of paper or index cards
• A pen for each delegate
• A container or bowl to collect submissions
• A safe, private space with a calm, non-judgemental atmosphere

Setup

• Ask all delegates to sit in a circle to encourage openness and equality.
• Distribute a slip of paper to each delegate.
• Ask everyone to anonymously write down a short description of a real professional mistake they have made. Should be devoid of names, roles or recognisable context unless needed.

Examples

• “I missed a critical deadline because I didn’t ask for help.”
• “I hired the wrong person out of urgency.”
• “I ignored a warning sign during a project and it led to failure.”

• Ask everyone to fold it and drop it in a container. You could optionally use digital solutions to simulate this and keep it anonymous.
• Collect all the slips and place them into a container, shuffle them thoroughly.
• Pick one submission at a time and decide if reading it will reveal the identity of the person who wrote it. If so, discard and pick another.
• Once happy, read the statement aloud, in a neutral and respectful tone.
• After each mistake is read, ask the group:

Ask

• “What can we learn from this?”
• “How could this be re-framed as a growth opportunity?”
• “What could someone do differently next time?”
• “What does this mistake tell us about the pressures or challenges we all face?”

• Allow two to three minutes of open discussion per mistake. Focus on supportive insights, not judgement or speculation about who submitted it.
• Continue reading and discussing as many as time allows.
• Wrap up the session with a reflection that reinforces psychological safety and the value of sharing mistakes. Follow with a discussion.

Timing

Explaining the Exercise: 5 minutes

Activity: 3 minutes writing mistakes + 16 minutes evaluations based on 8 submissions

Group Feedback: 10 minutes

Discussion

• What surprised you during this exercise?
• Did you hear a mistake that you have made before too?
• How did it feel to hear others’ experiences without knowing who they belonged to?
• What can you take away from this that might shift how you view your own mistakes?

Variations

• Themed Mistakes: Ask for mistakes on specific topics such as delegation, communication and leadership.
• Pair Reflection: After the group discussion, ask delegates to discuss privately in pairs which mistake resonated with them most and why.
• Reframing Challenge: After reading each card, ask a volunteer to offer a one-sentence reframe: turning the mistake into a strength or insight.

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