Even small errors, like a wrong number on an expense report or a typo in code, can feel like the end of the world at work.
Fintech cofounder Garima Shah said it’s “dumb” to “chastise people for making mistakes” in a corporate environment — and at a startup, mistakes need to happen in order to promote innovation.
“Every single day is different, which means we’re going to have to make mistakes in order to continue moving forward,” said Shah, who cofounded fintech company Biller Genie about five years ago.
That means taking accountability is “really important,” the cofounder told Business Insider. As a way to encourage employees at the a B2B SaaS platforming company to do so, Shah launched a “fuck-up of the month meeting” a few years ago, which consists of a monthly all-hands where employees volunteer stories of messing up that month.
“It could be anything. It could be that you sent an email to the wrong person,” Shah said, adding that it could also be “something a lot more devastating.”
Shah said sometimes only five employees will volunteer, and other times 20 people will share a story. At the end of the year, the company awards the employee who made the biggest mistake.
Shah said the employee who won last year reset the settings of 3,500 clients and clicked save by accident. The cofounder said the employee is still at the company and “still incredible.” The cofounder said it’s important to have a culture where employees can look around and see others are still around and being promoted, even if they messed up along the way.
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The idea is to create a space where workers can own their mistakes, everyone can learn from them, and the company can improve processes so that it doesn’t happen again, Shah said.
For example, in the situation where the employee reset client settings, Shah said they shouldn’t have had the access to make the mistake in the first place.
The company also praises employee achievements. The meeting where they own their mistakes follows a “kudos of the month,” celebration, which recognizes employees who stood out during the same period.
While the startup does its best to provide an open space for employees to share mistakes without being shamed or reprimanded, that doesn’t mean employees are encouraged — or allowed — to repeatedly mess up, Shah said.
“If you do the same thing multiple times, we definitely don’t have a tolerance for that,” Shah said.
