Celebrating mistakes: Niki-learns-something-ball

Our Niki once enthusiastically wanted to help clear the Christmas tree. She grabbed a big white glittering glass ball and looked at me with a proud expression. “Look, mum… !” At the same moment, the ball landed on the floor and shattered. Niki stared dumbly at the shards and after a few seconds started to cry bitterly…

I walked slowly to her and put my hand on her back to comfort her. “Oops,” I said in a calm voice. “I didn’t mean to break the ball!” Niki sobbed quietly. “Hmmm… I’m quite sure you didn’t mean to,” I replied.

C for celebrating mistakes

As we stood there looking at the remains of the Christmas tree bauble, I suddenly remembered the third point of our SUCCESS model for team development, F for celebrating mistakes. “What are you going to do differently with the next bauble you take from the tree?” I asked my daughter. She looked at me blankly. “I’m not going to take another ball down. You do that now!” she said firmly. “That’s a shame!” I replied, ”Then the poor ball has been broken for nothing.” “For nothing? What do you mean?”

“Well,” I began to share my thoughts, ”if you now think about what you can do differently with the next ball, then this ball has taught you something. It will be something very special. A real Niki-learns-something-ball!” She thought about it for a while and then said: “I won’t look at you next time, but I’ll look at the ball while I’m holding it.” “That’s a good idea!” I said happily, ”Would you like to try it out right away?”

Niki nodded. First, we swept the broken pieces safely to one side. Then she carefully took the next bauble from the tree to carry it to the storage box and place it inside. From that moment on, she never took her eyes off a single piece of jewellery as long as she held it in her hands. When all the Christmas tree decorations were safely stowed away, we thanked the broken Niki-learns-something-ball and proudly took it to the garbage can together.