Mistakes That Worked

 

Issue No. 669 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Jan. 9, 2026) spotlights several dozen inventions that resulted from big mistakes! (Think chocolate chip cookies and Frisbees!) Plus, click here for recent issues posted at the NEW site for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my year-end “Top-10 Books of 2025 and Book-of-the-Year.” Also, check out the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and more book reviews at the Pails in Comparison Blog.   Fix Your Boring Staff Meetings! One of my favorite college professors, Talmage Wilson (1926-2006), once shared a funny story with our class at SPU. He and his wife, Doris (a physician) had served as missionaries in several African countries. At a retreat for fellow missionaries, the mission’s leader had asked Prof. Wilson to lead an inspirational seminar. Underwhelmed by previous presentations that often put seminar participants to sleep, Wilson distributed his one-page handout: a black-and-white outline of the face of Jesus. Crayons were placed at the seminar tables and the assignment was given: “Reflect and meditate on Jesus for the next 30 minutes—and use your favorite colors to complete the drawing.” Oh…to have been in that seminar room and hear the reactions of the participants! My take-away from Prof. Wilson: don’t be afraid to try something creative. Make a memory.  Now, as I think back over the years of my boring seminar presentations, I should have (I could have) been much more creative. (Ditto at weekly staff meetings.) Thus…I’m urging you to do a cannonball into the deep end of the creativity pool—and inspire your team with a surprisingly fun book: Mistakes That Worked:  The World's Familiar Inventions and How They Came to Be by Charlotte Foltz Jones (Oct. 11, 2016) If I were still a CEO, here’s how I would facilitate my next weekly staff meeting: STEP 1. Order three books and gift them to the three most creative team members. Assignment: Each person will pick one “mistake that worked” (an invention that documents how we can learn from mistake-making). Prepare a five-minute presentation on the mistake/invention—and then facilitate a five-minute “What can we learn from this?” Q&A. (You’ll receive a Starbucks gift card if you finish in 10 minutes or less.) STEP 2. Definitely…serve some fun food! Chapter 1, “Favorite Foods,” features a dozen “mistakes” that brought us these favorites: chocolate chip cookies, Coca-Cola, doughnut holes, fudge, ice cream cones, popsicles, potato chips, sandwiches, tea, and more! (Note: Here’s just one of dozens of fun factoids in the book: On Sept. 7, 1975, a church in Davenport, Iowa, landed in the Guinness Book of World Records for creating a 5,750-pound “iced lollipop on a stick.”) STEP 3. At future weekly staff meetings, assign one person to present the five-minute summary and facilitate the five-minute Q&A discussion. Extra credit if they include a “show-and-tell” of the actual “mistake/invention.” The book showcases several dozen memorable innovations:    • The Frisbee. Let’s meet at the 2026 United States Disc Golf Championship!     • Ivory Soap. Honest! The “soap that floats” was named by Harley Procter (as in Procter & Gamble) “while listening to a Bible reading at church one morning in 1879.”    • Paper Towels. This reminded me of the market segmentation discussion on Bounty Paper Towels in the brilliant book, Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, by A.G. Lafley (former CEO of P&G) and Roger L. Martin. (Read my review.)    • Many More! Team members can showcase their favorite piggy banks, Levi’s jeans, Slinky toys, and Silly Putty! The Big Idea for Life-long Learning: We’ll make mistakes—so let’s learn from them. Something good may pop out like VELCRO, Post-it Notes, or even seeing eye dogs or trouser cuffs! Note: Plan something special on February 11—National Inventors Day. If you live close to Washington, D.C., plan a team-building day at the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum in Alexandria, Virginia. Or visit the National Inventors Hall of Fame in North Canton, Ohio. Details. LOL! According to the author, in 1875 the director of the U.S. Patent Office “quit his job and suggested that his department be closed. There was nothing left to invent, he insisted.” Apparently, not true! For fun, visit the California Invention Convention on April 18, 2026, or the U.S. nationals at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Mich., June 3-5, 2026.   PICTURE THIS! I’ve listed two editions of this book below. My favorite color illustrations are from Book Option #2. The illustration for VELCRO features a hilarious color drawing of a cowboy on a bucking horse—riding “hands-free” on a VELCRO saddle! Page 73 spotlights a wedding ceremony with the bride and groom (an Englishman is the trend-setter who “invented” trouser cuffs). The scene with the officiating clergyman: LOL! And...Amazon says this book is perfect for ages 8 to 11. (It's also perfect for ages 18 to 80!) COLORING SHEETS! And speaking of crayons and learning, you’ll appreciate this creative workbook from our son, Jason Pearson, REBRAND: Workbook + Coloring Sheets for Ministry Branding. Read my review and note Jason’s take on the four social styles.  AND BY THE WAY—speaking of popsicles and boring staff meetings—the Heath brothers urge you to create extraordinary moments on a team member’s first day on the job instead of the opposite: “Imagine if you treated a first date like a new employee.” That’s from my 2017 book-of-the-year, The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. (Read my review.) And since we mention popsicles above, the Heath brothers explain why the Magic Castle Hotel in Los Angeles does this: “Let’s start with a cherry-red phone mounted to a wall near the pool. You pick it up and someone answers, ‘Hello, Popsicle Hotline.’" NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION: No more boring weekly staff meetings! Amen? Need more help? See Death by Meeting and Thinkpak: A Brainstorming Card Deck. And should leaders talk less in staff meetings? Learn why this author only talks five percent of the time. TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, OPTION #1: Mistakes That Worked: The World's Familiar Inventions and How They Came to Be, by Charlotte Foltz Jones and John O'Brien (Illustrator) – (Hardcover, black & white illustrations, Oct. 11, 2016). OPTION #2: Mistakes That Worked: 40 Familiar Inventions & How They Came to Be, by Charlotte Foltz Jones and John O'Brien (Illustrator) - (Paperback, color illustrations, May 1, 1994). And thanks to Paul Fleischmann, author of Better Together, who gifted this mistakes book to me! He was also influential in recommending my 2025 book-of-the-year. (Thanks, Paul!)   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) “Boring is criminal” is the attention-grabbing graphic, attributed to Steve McKee, in Jason Pearson’s “coloring book,” Rebrand. Rate our recent weekly staff meetings on a 10-point scale from Criminally Boring (1) to Informative & Inspiring (10). 2) Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—and What I Learned, a workbook by John Pearson, includes a two-page “Do-It-Yourself Mistake-Maker” template that can be photocopied for your next weekly staff meeting. Think of a big mistake you made earlier in your career and then recommend a book you should have read earlier.       SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #37 of 99: Operation Mincemeat For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #37 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring.   Operation Mincemeat:  How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan  Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre (April 5, 2011) My review highlighted a remarkable book on the zillion of details involved in one of the greatest war ruses of all time. It’s filled with leadership lessons and why missing even the smallest details can literally kill you.    • Reviewed in Issues No. 195 & 387 (Sept. 7, 2010; June 6, 2018)    • Read my review on Amazon.    • Order from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #17 of 20: The Operations Bucket    • Note: Operation Mincemeat (the movie) was released in 2022. I titled my review “Operation Details,” and it’s an amazing true story of a war machine bureaucracy that—due to detailed planning—gets it done. Unlike any spy novel I’ve ever read, the details and insights are extraordinary. The small team in London (about 20 men and women and just five typewriters in a stuffy underground office) executed the plan with spy movie genius.  Along the way, the leadership and management issues jump off the pages, including how to recognize the twin sins of “wishfulness” and “yesmanship.” For detail-oriented people (who bless others by mastering the Operations Bucket and the Systems Bucket) this true account will not disappoint. CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN      Mistake #5 of 8: “Obsessing Over Programs & Not Owning the Strategy.” Read more in the new workbook, The 8 Big Mistakes to Avoid With Your Nonprofit Board—and answer the 14 questions every board member needs to ask, including, “Does our board own the strategy?” (See page 56.) This is the NEW location for John Pearson's Buckets Blog. Slowly (!), the previous 650+ blogs posted (between 2006 and 2025) will gradually populate this blogsite, along with new book reviews each month. BOARD RETREAT  MISTAKES! More than 300 board governance blogs by John Pearson are archived at ECFA’s Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations Blog. To read “10 Mistakes to Avoid at Your Next Board Retreat (Part 1 of 2)," click here. MORE RESOURCES: • Blog: Pails in Comparison • Subscribe: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • John's book reviews: on Amazon  • Website: Management Buckets • Blog: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations Read at Least 1 Mistake Book Every Year! On the Pails in Comparison blog, check out my list of 16 mistake-making books, including Mistakes Leaders Make, by Dave Kraft, and why King Saul “could very well be the poster child for mistakes leaders make.” Inspire your staff and board to read at least one “mistake” book every year. Extra credit: read two! (Watch for more “mistake” books on the Pails in Comparison blog.)