I was at the grocery store this afternoon buying some steaks and chips… the young cashier says $5 something was my total bill? Well the steaks are more than that… so I point out to him that he is not charging me enough. I found it interesting. He didn’t know what to do… first, it seems, he was afraid to admit that he made a mistake and because of that ALMOST told me to go ahead without correcting it…. Employees HAVE to be able to make mistakes… and more importantly know they are not punished for them… many employers don’t understand that their very behavior is creating an environment that makes them loose money… And it is more than just accepting the mistakes it is to ENCOURAGE the “fessing up” when it happens… mistakes happen and when we do we fix them – quickly! secondly the fact the employees are not comfortable with making human errors, they are not as happy as they could be … this slows productivity. Whether you think you have a culture or not – you do… isn’t it better to be able to choose what that culture is?