Use This Strategy to Recover from Your Next Mistake

Imagine you’re on the sidelines of a practice field in Santa Clara, California. It’s the spring of 2019, and the US Women’s National Soccer team is preparing for the upcoming World Cup tournament. As stars such as Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, and Julie Ertz roam the field, they sometimes mess up — an errant pass, a missed shot. When they do, you hear them shout a peculiar phrase: “Black box it!”

What’s going on? In addition to practicing passing, shooting, and defending, they’re practicing another critical skill: compartmentalizing their mistakes. In this case, they’re putting them into a metaphorical black box. This strategy, called “black boxing it,” is one of the many methods we’ve used to help train the world’s best athletes, business leaders, military operators, and first responders throughout our careers.

Summary. The best performers have learned a variety of mental disciplines that allow them to deliver their very best in all circumstances. When it comes to the work environment, “black boxing it” is particularly useful method and anyone can use it to up their game. Here’s how it works:

One of us (Eric) is a clinical performance psychologist and the other (Alan) is an executive communications consultant. Over our three decades in the workforce, we’ve collaborated with high performers across disciplines and industries, from Navy SEALs to Google executives. Our collective experience has shown us that what separates elite performers from everyone else is not the lack of making mistakes — everyone makes mistakes, even the superstars — rather, it’s how they respond to them. The best performers have learned a variety of mental disciplines that allow them to deliver their very best in all circumstances. When it comes to the work environment, “black boxing it” is particularly useful and anyone can use it to up their game.

How to Black Box Your Mistakes

“Black boxing it” is all about mental toughness, or the ability to manage your flight or fight response after making a mistake mid-performance.

We’ve all been there: the question in the big meeting we bravely step up to answer, only to realize we didn’t nail it; the presentation we worked on for hours that suddenly won’t load. When these moments happen, we suddenly find ourselves at a critical fork in the road.

Option 1: We allow fight or flight to take over. Negative self-talk kicks in, sweat appears out of nowhere, and all we can think is how could I have done that? Our heart and breathing rates go up. Our senses become sharper. Most critically, our advanced problem solving, judgment, and decision making skills become impaired.

Option 2: We take a deep breath, put the issue aside, and redirect our focus back to the task at hand.

Intellectually, we know that the best thing to do is put the issue aside and get back to the mission. But this is much easier said than done. That’s where “black boxing it” comes in.

When you feel flight or fight taking over, pause and picture a black box in your mind. Take a breath, tell yourself I’m not going to think about that now, and visualize putting whatever got you off track into that black box. Literally, see it go in the box. If you’re with teammates, tell them let’s black box it. Then intentionally redirect your focus to the task and mission at hand.

Sounds corny, right? But it works. It works for the U.S. Navy SEALs, who learn how to black box mistakes as part of their mental toughness training. It worked for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, who practiced black boxing all the way to the 2019 World Cup championship. It works for leading producers at insurance brokerage firm Lockton, and for thousands of other top performers, who use this simple mantra and metaphor to stop their human stress response and refocus.

That said, excellence requires practice, and most people don’t have the luxury of getting to make and recover from numerous high-profile mistakes. So, to get good at black boxing things, try it out on the little mistakes in life. Burn dinner? Black box it. Miss that turn while driving? Black box it. Say something embarrassing mid-date? Black box it. Practicing compartmentalization when little things happen will help ensure the skill is there for you when bigger mishaps come along.

How to Unbox It

Black boxing is great, but it’s only half of a solution. After the event, once the dust and emotions have settled, you have to unpack the box. Acknowledge whatever emotions the mistakes may have caused in the moment, then put them aside and follow a methodical process to evaluate what happened in a more objective light.

This can be on your own or with teammates. Ask yourself:

— What happened and why?

— What can I learn from that?

— How will I apply it to modify my process?

As an example, consider the practice of Erik Spoelstra, coach of the Miami Heat. He conducts such “after action reviews” with his team after important games — but not always right after. Spoelstra sometimes waits a couple of days before having the meeting. This allows time for the emotions associated with the performance to subside, and helps everyone review the events with a clearer perspective.

You can use the same strategy to unpack and learn from your mistakes at work.

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Learning how to compartmentalize errors by stuffing them in a metaphorical black box, then unpacking the box later to learn and get better, is a skill employed by thousands of the world’s best performers. It stops the human stress response and gets you back on track. So, start right now.

Close your eyes. Picture a black box in your mind. The next time you make a mistake, stick it in there. Now you are on your path to excellence.

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Eric Potterat, PhD is a clinical and performance psychologist and a leading expert in individual and organizational performance optimization. Eric retired as a commander from the US Navy after twenty years of service, during which he helped create the mental toughness curriculum used during Navy SEALs BUD/S training. Eric spent several years as the director of specialized performance for the Los Angeles Dodgers and has also worked with Red Bull athletes, the US Women’s national soccer team, the Miami Heat, and numerous Olympic athletes, first responders, business leaders, and NASA astronauts. He is the coauthor of the book, Learned Excellence: Mental Disciplines for Leading and Winning from the World’s Top Performers (Harper Business), to be published on February 6, 2024.

Alan Eagle is an author and executive communications consultant, helping leaders and companies shape and tell their stories. He spent 16 years at Google, partnering with executives to communicate the company’s story to clients, partners, employees, and the public. He is the co-author of the books How Google Works and Trillion Dollar Coach, and the author, all by himself, of seven letters-to-the-editor published in Sports Illustrated. He has never won the New Yorker Caption Contest. He is the coauthor of the book, Learned Excellence: Mental Disciplines for Leading and Winning from the World’s Top Performers (Harper Business), to be published on February 6, 2024.