Mistakes Must Be Acknowledged and Corrected

Admitting when we’re wrong can set a better example for leadership and trust

My very first research paper at the Manhattan Institute had a data error in it. Finding the source was hard because I’d done things right. I had even hand calculated sample data points to verify my software was working correctly.

Unfortunately, a confluence of events led to an error. The Census Bureau had recently updated its definitions of metro areas, altering the data result for some regions. I had explicitly run a recalculate function to account for this, but it didn’t work because, unbeknownst to me, it had cached the old value and returned that. None of the regions I hand checked had been affected by the metro area redefinitions (an oversight on my part).

This had been a dream job for me and so I was stressed to say the least. I was standing in the break room contemplating it when a colleague noticed something was bothering me. She asked what was wrong. I told her that my new paper had an error in it. She said, “All you can do is correct it.”

I don’t typically write about private conversations, but I hope she won’t mind if I say that the person who said this to me was Judy Miller.

She was right, of course. I fixed the error and issued an updated paper, which we distributed to all the recipients. Fortunately, the error did not affect any of the paper’s conclusions.

Everybody makes mistakes. We should all be diligent in getting things right. But sometimes, we are just off.

When that happens, we have to be willing to acknowledge and correct the error.

Let’s be honest: too often, that fails to happen. That’s one reason trust in so many of our institutions and leaders is in decline.

I think it’s interesting that the gospels report Peter’s denial of Jesus. While this was a failing, not a mistake, it’s interesting that the apostles didn’t suppress negative information about themselves, even though they were well placed to do so.

Not everything that doesn’t work out is a mistake. Some things only look like a mistake in retrospect, because we don’t like the outcome.

We also don’t have to go around gratuitously publicizing all of our mistakes. And I think there’s probably a “de minimis” rule that some small errors are ok to let go.

It’s also reasonable to recognize that what constitutes appropriate behavior is domain specific. Journalism, where it’s standard practice to issue corrections when a fact is wrong, is different from politics.

And many of us have institutional connections that limit what we can say or do. We typically can’t say that our employer has gotten something wrong, for example.

Still, I think acknowledging and correcting error is important. I try to model this. One time in my newsletter I related the origin story of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos as an idea from a low level employee who later became a top executive at the company. I sourced this to a mainstream, reputable publication. However, an enterprising journalist decided to investigate this improbable story and discovered it was fabricated. I decided to include a blurb about this information, lest anyone repeat this debunked story.

Another example: a while back a friend of mine noted that someone he knew was switching from evangelicalism to Catholicism, and that the bishop had personally confirmed him at the cathedral. He thought this indicated a special interest in recruiting evangelical scholars.

I tweeted about this, but as it turns out it’s standard practice for bishops to perform confirmations. Well, that’s embarrassing. But I posted a correction. Again, I want to get things right, but it is inevitable I will make mistakes from time to time. The question is what to do when they occur.

As someone who has long said that Truth is the North Star of my publication, I want to model the kind of behavior we should want to see in our leaders by being someone who does acknowledge when I make a mistake, and setting the record straight.

I also think it’s a good practice that if we change our mind about something substantive, we acknowledge that we’ve done so and provide an explanation of why.

Like making a mistake, nothing is more natural than this. We should be changing our mind about things as we age. There’s an old quip to the effect that, “If you’re not a socialist at age 20, you have no heart. If you are still a socialist at age 40, you have no brain.” Whenever someone appears to have never changed their mind over a 30-40 period, I start to get suspicious. I give Russell Moore credit for directly saying, “I changed my mind” on gender.

When it comes to things like these, it’s not enough to complain that previous generations got it wrong. We have to start demonstrating a better way through our actions.