Nobody likes to make mistakes. It’s also true that we rarely set out to deliberately make mistakes. Often our failures come despite a lot of careful thought. What you do after a mistake is really important. Cover it up and you’ll learn nothing. Ask these questions and see if you can exploit your thoughtful failures instead.

• Insight: which assumptions turned out to be wrong?
• Goal: does this tell you anything about your main goal?
• Next time: what will you do differently next time?
• Share: who needs to know so they don’t repeat failure?

Also have a look at these templates for carrying out a good post mortem:

• Basic post mortem
• Love, learn and leave behind
• Find the moral in the mistake and teach it