The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation
About this audiobook
2025 Shingo Publication Award Recipient
What if the mistakes you’ve spent years trying to avoid could become the most reliable engine for learning, innovation, and better leadership?
In The Mistakes That Make Us, bestselling author and consultant Mark Graban brings together lessons from more than 200 conversations on the My Favorite Mistake podcast—stories from CEOs, entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, artists, and everyday leaders who turned missteps into turning points. Through these relatable and often surprising examples, Graban shows that the real differentiator isn’t whether we make mistakes, but how we respond to them.
With clear guidance and a calm, inviting narration style, Graban explains how to build psychological safety, reduce fear and blame, encourage speaking up, and create systems that prevent errors rather than hide them. You’ll learn how to lead with curiosity instead of judgment, how to transform setbacks into insights, and how to create a culture where people feel safe taking smart risks and improving every day.
Perfect for leaders, teams, and lifelong learners, this audiobook provides practical tools and real stories that will change the way you think about mistakes—and the way your organization responds to them.
Start listening today and discover how mistakes, handled well, can become your strongest competitive advantage.