It depends on the severity of the "mistake".
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Enbridge is all about diluting accountability until no one is personally accountable.
How many people got let go when Sandpiper was cancelled and we wrote off over $700M in materials?
I made lots of mistakes in 20+ years. I got hauled in front of executives and grilled on a couple of them. Didn't affect my career growth or income. Told people why I did what I did, and without exception, that was that.
Finally left during the volunteer exit. I was not ushered out the door, and my leadership chain wasn't particularly thrilled to see me go.
So, if they bounce you for one mistake, they are seizing the opportunity to do what they wanted to do anyway. If you are competent, they won't.
"Leadership is about making decisions with 60% of the information. So go out and make some mistakes. Don't make the same mistakes over and over, or I'll rip your f'n head off." - Mike Brooks
This was said in the conference room at Chateau Lacombe after the first large scale culling of TIS back in the day. Mike was the swinger of the sickle during that period. He meant it. In my experience the org did the same.
IT loves to preach AGILE but not practice. pathetic leadership whi cant take questions from employees and feel threatened. .
No.
Especially if it remotely makes your senior leader look bad even though they are incompetent.
Only Directors and VPs are allowed to make mistakes. Anyone else is quickly compartmentalized until layoff periods.
Toxic.
That's a funny response. "Shoot from the hip, apply no structured thought, and just go by your gut" is poor advice in most circumstances, and doubly so for companies doing dangerous business. Under no circumstances should you be allowed any decision making authority.
"Understand how to calculate value based on probabilities. Understand the theory behind risk/reward calculations. Know how to include risk avoidance in your breakdown.
Making a poor decision and being unable to justify it is what leads (correctly) to termination."
Meh - the reality is we make too much of a deal about decision making. This approach is just a waste of money. 90% of time these so called risk/reward decisions have minimal outcome financially (negative and positive) of the outcome.
Just use common sense, and make decisions quickly and be prepared to handle any outcome.
Unfortunately most of our execs are MBA's, where they have elevated decision making to this sacred altar of worship.
Pretty sure most of our leaders have RAPID's done daily for them by teams of MBA's on whether your wipe once or twice after number 2. Ha ha would leave to see whom has the Input, Perform, and Recommend on that one .... can you imagine a VP assigning of one of there MBA's to 'perform' the outcome on a wiping decision. Finally a use for an MBA that matches the piece of paper they put out so much money for ....
In my experience... yes. Mistakes are alright. However... you have to be able to describe the thought process, and why you made the decisions that you did. If you can say, "The risk was", "the reward was", "the odds were", and "here's why"... you'll probably be fine.
Understand how to calculate value based on probabilities. Understand the theory behind risk/reward calculations. Know how to include risk avoidance in your breakdown.
Making a poor decision and being unable to justify it is what leads (correctly) to termination.
The culture across corporate America is the same on this.
Admitting mistakes is heavily frowned upon at exec level. Execs have a vested interest in ensuring they look infallible.
That’s why you never see execs being fired. They elect to go on leave or want to spend time with family. This is code for a f-up.
They just can’t say that since it leads to defamation lawsuits as the image and perception by then public of execs is their main marketable skill. Trying to prove they are at cause is tough legally so that’s why companies play it safe this way.
Then they move on to next company rinse and repeat.
Execs are the new nobles/kings and their entitlement is very well known
Not at all from my experience and is nothing more than a “coaching opportunity” during performance talks that yield lower ratings.
Just depends on how high up you are. Some people chose to save money by deferring ILI’s and the subsequent maintenance that would have resulted, which contributed to multiple ruptures and loss of life. They went on to lead at the highest level(s) of the company. Just put your blindfold on, plead ignorance, and remember as long as the dividend increases, you’ll be fine.
Mistakes at Enbridge are constant and plenty. Its how you deal with them that matters. If you take ownership and position it as a learning experience, your career will be short lived. You will become the department scape goat. The Enbridge approach is to never admit fault, blame everybody but yourself and your boss. Never suggest that a process or policy is broken or needs adjustment. The policy be process be praised and above all else, never show remorse. The mistake never happened and if it did it wasn't your fault, and it definitely isnt as bad as people are making it out to be.
Enbridge doesn’t make mistakes. We hire consultants heavily to ensure every action is of the highest quality.
All joking aside - the culture of making mistakes, learning from them and improving experience or products is a lost art across any industry.
Most execs are too narrow minded on this anymore and just ‘buy’ their results via consultants that make shareholders happy . Employees develping in this fashion is a thing of the past.
To answer tommyour question - no more than any other company. And to be clear - the consultants make mistakes too - big ones. It’s just that the price tag gets spun to ensure that even mistakes are flagged as successes.