Practice Recovery - FOW #23

When mistakes or errors in judgment happen, “own it.” Take the necessary steps to communicate to the appropriate parties, acknowledge your accountability, and set corrective steps in motion. “Get back in the game” quickly.

What a coincidence that everyone seems to be talking about this week’s fundamental, “practice recovery” as it came up in our rotation.

It’s impossible to miss the dialog surrounding Donte Robinson & Rashon Nelson being arrested at a Starbucks. After watching a few videos on the incident, I was struck by two pieces in particular.

 Donte & Rashon’s Response

When interviewed their clearheaded, thoughtful responses brought me to tears.

Donte, when asked what he hoped came out of the publicity of their arrest and everything that followed: “I want young black men to feel motivated and inspired out of it“, and Rashon said “I want people to stand up and show your greatness”.

Instead of showing anger, they are asking people to be better. It’s beautiful.

Starbucks Response

The way that Starbuck’s CEO responded was a win for me. He sat down with them in person, looked them in the eye & face to face said “i am sorry, we were wrong”.

The CEO owned it.

He took accountability and communicated it to the right people (Donte and Rashon). He didn't do a faceless press release (or worse, a tweet).

He had a human interaction & set corrective steps in motion.

The results?

I am paraphrasing a bit what the CEO of Starbucks said but it boils down to: May 29th there will be mandatory training, they’re closing 8,000 stores and 175,000 employees will be trained, including himself,  led by the best thought leaders on the subject.

As he said so well “the first step in one of many important steps in regards to this issue.”

 The Fundamental

Practice recovery is all about taking something that was negative and flipping it into a positive. It’s all in the recovery.

Mistakes will happen. 

You can't control mistakes, but we can control how we react & who we are going to be in the face of challenges. When errors happen, own it. Set corrective steps in motion & get back in the game quickly.

All of these things are happening in real time right now, it’s very cool.

Starbucks is owning what happened, it’s an understatement to say error in judgement. Calling police on someone just sitting there.

Starbucks is all about bringing people together, and that didn’t match the corporate policy that was technically being followed in that situation. In light of this, they are making steps to correct it.

When you’ve experienced a crisis or mistake in your workplace, how did you handle it?

Can you confidently say that you owned it, had a conversation with the right people, acknowledged your accountability, and took steps to set corrective actions in motion.

If not, why? How can you ensure that you are practicing recovery (it’s a practice, you never will be perfect) in a smart way?

As my daughter Caitlynrose sagely said when we discussed this topic, “we are not defined by our setbacks, we are defined by our comebacks.”

For this fundamental, its really not about corporate recovery.

It’s about human recovery and bringing your humanity to the plate when something goes wrong.