How to Address a Mistake You Made with a Collaborative Team
Acknowledging and addressing mistakes within a collaborative team is an essential endeavor for any professional educator. In this episode, we delve into the complexities of humility, reflection, and honesty as pivotal components in transforming tension into trust. We elucidate practical strategies for recognizing, rectifying, and rejuvenating relationships, thereby modeling a growth mindset for our students. It is imperative to remember that the act of owning one’s mistakes not only exemplifies maturity and integrity but also fosters an environment conducive to collective success. As we navigate these challenges, we emphasize the importance of transparency and open communication, which are foundational to rebuilding trust and promoting professional growth among educators.
The intricate dynamics of teamwork in educational settings necessitate a candid approach to addressing mistakes, as elucidated by Mr. Funky Teacher, Nicholas Kleve. This episode serves as a comprehensive guide for educators grappling with the challenges of error acknowledgment within collaborative frameworks. Mr. Kleve articulates the critical significance of confronting one's missteps with both honesty and humility, thereby transforming potential discord into an opportunity for growth and understanding.
Delving into the psychological barriers that often accompany admissions of fault, Mr. Kleve emphasizes that silence and avoidance exacerbate the burden of errors, whereas transparency can alleviate tension and foster a culture of trust. Through a personal narrative detailing an incident involving assessment miscalculations, he illustrates the necessity of a collaborative approach to rectification, inviting team members to engage in constructive dialogue aimed at solutions rather than blame.
The episode further explores the essential process of reflection following a mistake, urging educators to analyze the underlying systems or patterns that may have contributed to the error. By framing mistakes within the context of progress rather than failure, Mr. Kleve advocates for a mindset that embraces learning and adaptation. This discourse ultimately champions the idea that effective teams are not those devoid of errors, but those that navigate challenges with resilience and a commitment to collective improvement.
Takeaways:
- Acknowledging one’s mistakes early and honestly establishes a foundation of trust within a collaborative team.
- Modeling vulnerability and integrity in the face of errors fosters a culture of growth and accountability for all involved.
- Repairing relationships after a mistake requires open communication and a collective approach to solutions.
- Reflecting on the circumstances surrounding a mistake can transform guilt into valuable insights for future improvement.
- Consistent follow-through after addressing a mistake is crucial for rebuilding credibility and trust among team members.
- Embracing imperfection and openly discussing mistakes encourages a supportive environment that prioritizes professional growth.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Be a Funky Teacher
Transcript
Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness, makes you feel good.
Speaker A:Like your favorite playlist.
Speaker A:Keeping that fresh and funky.
Speaker A:Yes, he does.
Speaker A:He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.
Speaker A:He can empower others, students and teachers.
Speaker A:It's all about hard work and creativity.
Speaker A:He brings out the kindness in everyone.
Speaker A:He's got the passion to teach.
Speaker A:You hear it when he speaks.
Speaker A:He knows how to build strong relationships.
Speaker A:If you're seeking the best bunkiest, he is it.
Speaker A:He will empower you to improve.
Speaker A:You'll be helping others and loving it too.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:This is Mr. Funky Teacher with Be a Funky Teacher dot com.
Speaker B:I'm coming to you with another be a funky teacher podcast.
Speaker B:Welcome back, everyone.
Speaker B:Today's episode is called how to address mistakes you made with a collaborative team.
Speaker B:But before we get into it, I want to talk about three things that I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:First thing, I'm thankful for my wife's organizational skills.
Speaker B:She's steady, calm, and somehow keeps our home, our schedules, and our sanity all flowing together.
Speaker B:Watching her plan, prepare, and just all of the work she puts into to us reminds me of how good systems bring peace instead of pressure.
Speaker B:Her organizational skills really do make a difference.
Speaker B:Second thing I'm thankful for is my kids as teachers.
Speaker B:They pour so much care into every student, including my own children.
Speaker B:You're seeing just thinking about seeing their creativity and their compassion from the parent side, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker B:It reminds me of why relationships matter most.
Speaker B:The third thing I'm thankful for is my.
Speaker B:My own children's hard work in school.
Speaker B:I love seeing my.
Speaker B:My children's perseverance.
Speaker B:Whether it's homework or a project that pushes them, they.
Speaker B:They remind me that learning is a process.
Speaker B:It's not a performance, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Our main topic today that I want to get into is how to address a mistake you made with a collaborative team.
Speaker B:First thing, first big idea that I want to talk about is to acknowledge it early and honestly.
Speaker B:The hardest part, I think we can admit the hardest part of making a mistake isn't the error itself.
Speaker B:It's the fear of admitting it.
Speaker B:But, you know, here's the thing.
Speaker B:Leadership starts with vulnerability.
Speaker B:When something goes wrong, silence makes it heavier.
Speaker B:Hiding it makes it heavier.
Speaker B:Honesty makes it lighter.
Speaker B:And when we address a mistake, it doesn't need to be a performative thing.
Speaker B:It doesn't need to be some big, fancy, fancy speech.
Speaker B:We just have to Approach it with some sincerity, I think, like, like, hey, I just realized I dropped the ball on this and I think it might have caused some more confusion and I'd like to clear it up.
Speaker B:See, when we own, when we own our mistakes and we own it calmly, it models maturity for everyone.
Speaker B:It models integrity also for, for students who are watching, if students are seeing it, if, if the, for, for the staff who are involved, it just is models of maturity and a level of integrity that is so important to our profession.
Speaker B:So 1.
Speaker B:An example that I can share is I just.
Speaker B:We've been doing a lot of assessment work and we've been looking at some essential state standards.
Speaker B:We've been looking at what are some, some critically important standards at our grade level that, that are priority standards that we as a team, sure, we're responsible for all standards, but are there some priority essential standards that we are that, that we can maybe put a little bit more focus on that, that are essential to, to students?
Speaker B:And looking at different data points, different state testing points, different student performance, student progress, and so we got some, some data points that we're looking at.
Speaker B:Well, we, we've come up with a list.
Speaker B:There's been several different renditions of the list.
Speaker B:And I, I started building out a, of an assessment system that actually worked off the wrong list and where I, I kind of mixed some things up and I built some stuff out and it ended up costing our team.
Speaker B:I realized about an hour's worth of work when we're leaning into some assessment building.
Speaker B:So I, when we were kind of going through the work, I thought something was, was not right, that something just wasn't flowing.
Speaker B:And since then, in the past week, I've gone through and started looking at it and like, oh boy, there's, there's.
Speaker B:I made a mistake and it says I'm kind of mad at myself, but I, I can't just hide it and I can't just act like it does.
Speaker B:Didn't happen.
Speaker B:The mistake I've made.
Speaker B:So I'm owning it with my team and owning it and saying he, hey, this is, this is a mistake I made.
Speaker B:The big thing here is that people can handle imperfection.
Speaker B:They can't handle avoidance.
Speaker B:And so this mistake I made, I'm owning it.
Speaker B:Hey, I made this mistake and I've talked to my team some.
Speaker B:I'm going to talk to them.
Speaker B:I'm going to lean into it some more and we're going to address it as a team here.
Speaker B:As soon as I realized the mistake I made, I'm I'm getting it out there with my team because there's no use in just hiding it.
Speaker B:And it was an honest mistake.
Speaker B:But it's still.
Speaker B:I am.
Speaker B:I'm part of myself in, in that way or because it's an awful thing to be.
Speaker B:I know but like perfectionistic where I just.
Speaker B:It's one thing that I work on trying not.
Speaker B:Not to.
Speaker B:Like, nothing's perfect in this life.
Speaker B:And so I give.
Speaker B:I try to give myself some grace.
Speaker B:But when I make those mistakes, especially when others are depending on me or counting on me, I'm hard on myself.
Speaker B:So it's what I, What I am not afraid of is admitting that I'm wrong though, or that I made a mistake, but it still doesn't make it necessarily easy.
Speaker B:So, so important for us to do.
Speaker B:And I, I do think it models maturity and integrity though, when we can.
Speaker B:When we can admit we make a mistake.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So the next thing to think about is repairing like if there's a mistake made, repair, repair with a team, not.
Speaker B:Not for the team.
Speaker B:So collaboration means shared success and shared recovery after acknowledging the mistake, then shift into, you know, how can we fix this together?
Speaker B:Now I've done some initial work trying to f. Still bringing the.
Speaker B:The I brought the issue to the team and bringing more aspects of it to the team so we can address it together and we can fix it.
Speaker B:See, ask asking for.
Speaker B:It's important too to ask for.
Speaker B:For ideas for hey, this is the mistake made.
Speaker B:What.
Speaker B:What's the.
Speaker B:What is the team's thinking on how we can address this going on and getting everybody, valuing and showing everybody's input.
Speaker B:Can it really help communicate trust to the team and say that hey, we value colleagues perspectives.
Speaker B:It's important to also keep your tone open, not defensive.
Speaker B:Listening doesn't erase responsibility, it deepens it, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And at going through the process as.
Speaker B:As teams maybe express some feedback or some guidance on how an issue or a mistake can.
Speaker B:Can be fixed.
Speaker B:I encourage you to.
Speaker B:To be specific with appreciation.
Speaker B:Thanking your team with appreciation.
Speaker B:Hey, thanks for being patient.
Speaker B:As we work through this big thing I'd say is you apologize once sincerely and then move the conversation to solutions.
Speaker B:Keep it solution oriented over apologizing keeps everyone stuck in the past.
Speaker B:And when you remind and when you respond to a situation with humility and actions, you actually turn discomfort into momentum.
Speaker B:Momentum moving forward where the team can grow and thrive and function in a way that is most impactful for everyone involved.
Speaker B:Because ultimately the team's goal is to move forward even with some, some hiccups and bumps in the road.
Speaker B:The mistakes are, are bumps in the road.
Speaker B:So the next big idea, y', all is to, to reflect, rebuild and reinvest trust.
Speaker B:Reflection transforms guilt into growth after situation, after the situation settles, take time, step back.
Speaker B:After, after the mistake has been addressed, take time to ask, hey, what, like at a personal level, maybe think about, hey, what pattern or systems led to the mistake?
Speaker B:And is there a boundary or routine that could have prevented it next time.
Speaker B:Maybe it was just a silly mistake.
Speaker B:Ultimately, you know, sometimes silly mistakes are silly mistakes and maybe there's, maybe there's something that was done that led to, to the mistake.
Speaker B:It's, it's okay to take some time to look at after, after the mistake has been addressed, how to maybe help make sure it doesn't happen again.
Speaker B:Maybe brainstorming, writing down answers can also help a person's mind to file it as progress and not failure.
Speaker B:If you make a mistake and write how you can address things, how you can address it next time to make sure that mistake doesn't happen, get that down on paper.
Speaker B:It.
Speaker B:If we can help get our brain around, hey, this is progress.
Speaker B:Progress is full of mistakes.
Speaker B:Let's just be real.
Speaker B:When we're making progress, we're making mistakes.
Speaker B:That should be a whole.
Speaker B:That should be a whole nother podcast episode.
Speaker B:Progress is making mistakes.
Speaker B:But when we make progress or when we make mistakes, we're making progress.
Speaker B:But we want to organize it as that in our brain.
Speaker B:Because if we sit and harp on something in our brain where we just keep kind of telling us, oh, I'm a failure, I made a failure, I made a failure.
Speaker B:If you ingrain that in your brain that it's a failure versus progress, you're going to approach things differently and start thinking differently.
Speaker B:And that's kind of a dangerous type of approach.
Speaker B:I encourage you also to take opportunities to share learning.
Speaker B:Here's what I learned and how I'm adjusting as things get revisited later, as a collaborative team, as you're moving forward.
Speaker B:See, over time, consistency rebuilds credibility too.
Speaker B:People trust what they see repeatedly, not what they hear just once.
Speaker B:And so that's where you're, you're, you make a mistake, it might have shaken trust a little bit.
Speaker B:But when you bring in that consistency over time, it rebuilds any sort of credibility that might have been shaken a little bit.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:So, so that's something to think about.
Speaker B:Your quiet follow through will speak louder than any meeting apology ever could.
Speaker B:Remember, strong teams aren't those that avoid mistakes.
Speaker B:They're the ones that.
Speaker B:That handle them with grace and grit.
Speaker B:So some big reflective takeaways here is that mistakes don't define your professionalism.
Speaker B:Your response does.
Speaker B:Transparency strengthens culture.
Speaker B:As Mr. Funky's teacher says, grace doesn't cancel accountability, it completes it.
Speaker B:When we own our part and move forward with honesty, we give others permission to do the same.
Speaker B:This is something to think about.
Speaker B:I love grace.
Speaker B:I love accountability.
Speaker B:I love moving forward.
Speaker B:Such an important thing to do, y', all, as.
Speaker B:As we move forward.
Speaker B:As I move forward as an individual, if something goes sideways, which, let's be real, we're an imperfect people business.
Speaker B:If something goes.
Speaker B:If as.
Speaker B:As I continue to move forward, if something goes sideways, my approach is going to take a breath, take responsibility, and then take the next right steps with my team moving forward.
Speaker B:That, I mean, if you take that approach, you can't go wrong.
Speaker B:That's a winning approach, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker B:That, that is, that's my approach.
Speaker B:That, that's how I would encourage you to take your approach also into dealing with.
Speaker B:If you make a mistake with a collaborative team, it's a winning combination.
Speaker B:And it's, it's a, it's a, it's.
Speaker B:It's an approach that is going to, to help you as a professional be your best and help your collaborative team be their best as well.
Speaker B:Well, I hope you found value in this episode.
Speaker B:If you did, jump on over to Apple Podcast and hit me up with a five star review or wherever you listen to your podcast, hit me up with a review if you would.
Speaker B:And I want you to remember to inspire greatness in young people.
Speaker B:And don't forget to be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Bye now.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Bunky teacher, yeah.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Bunky Teacher, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Sam.
