Black Box Thinking

Failures, mistakes and problems are part of every contractor’s business.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

They are part of everyone’s day.  What separates out high-performing teams is a relentless focus on learning from these problems then creating systems and training to mitigate them in the future.  

Talent Development Tools: Root Cause Analysis and Improvements. Quote: Ego is about who's right. Truth is about what's right. Mike Maples Jr. Book: Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed.

Low-performers look for “Who” did something wrong.

Low-performers put quick fixes in place and move on.

Low-performers avoid talking about failures, problems and mistakes openly.  


High-performers view every failure, problem or mistake as an opportunity to learn. 

High-performers ask lots of questions to identify the root cause of what happened.

High-performers then make plans to adjust for the next cycle.  

High-performers raise up the whole team by creating new standards, processes and training when they find a better way.  


Black Box Thinking was recommended to me by Sujata Bhide and dives much deeper into this topic.  

We spend a lot of time with our clients helping their teams develop great skills at Root Cause Analysis + Improvements.  Never easy; always worth it.  

Learn more




Grow Sustainably with Great Talent
The contractors who want to attract and retain the best talent must provide opportunities for their career growth and that comes from having a strategic growth plan. This means a tough and scary leap of faith considering the labor shortages being faced.
Incentive Compensation for Contractors - Audience Questions: Edge Cases?
There will always be people in the organization working at the edges of your performance bell curve and that must be addressed with your incentive compensation program.
Types of Trust - Breaking it Down to Build Effective Teams
Build your career, team, project, and company faster by learning to quickly develop trust, including being able to troubleshoot problems. Trust is a very broad term and too often misunderstood. Trust is a verb much more than a noun.