I like doodling on Post-It® Notes and playing with two-by-two tables and recently I came across one that triggered a bit of an “Eureka”
moment.
The two dimensions were Action (Nothing-to-Something) and Outcome (Worse-to-Better). We are all familiar with the good feeling that comes from doing something and seeing things get better; and the not-so-good feeling of doing something and seeing things get worse! I discovered that this latter option is called the “Error of Commission” and is the one we fear most because we leave an audit trail of evidence that can be traced back to our action. It does not seem to matter that we did not intend the outcome to be worse.
However, the 2 x 2 table also suggests that there are two other combinations. How do we feel when we do nothing and things get better? What do we learn from that experience? And how do we feel when we do nothing and things get worse? This, I discovered, is called the “Error of Omission” and is an error that is more difficult to learn from because there is no audit trail of cause-and-effect evidence. It is also the error that generates the greatest sadness – a feeling of loss of what might have been.
Both the Error of Commission and the Error of Omission can lead to unintended negative consequences. It appears that our systems are better designed to manage the Errors of Commission. I wonder if we could learn to better protect ourselves from the Errors of Omission?