Are You Afraid of Mistakes?

Today I was thinking about organizations that make mistakes. At some places (Catch Your Limit included) mistakes are encouraged, or rather, not encouraged but learning and sharing mistakes is preferred to trying to hide them. At Catch Your Limit, if we make a mistake we tell our clients immediately and we tell them how we'll fix it. It makes us better, we learn from our mistakes. After all, how can you have a creative organization if you're working in a culture of fear?

It reminds me of collecting seashells as a kid. Like many Florida kids, I had a large shell collection. Often I'd collect them on the shore during the summers when my parents were out of school but my grandmother would add to collection whenever she found a really great shell at a garage sale. The grandest of shells she'd ever found was a sanddollar the size of a full sheet of paper. It was perfect, which is rare because of their fragile structure.

Not a week after giving it to me, my clumsy child hands broke it in half. Scared of the trouble I'd be in if my dad or grandmother found out what I'd done I attempted to glue the two halves back together. Now the smooth bleach white shell had an obvious fault line running horizontally down the middle as if a small earthquake took place on the surface of the shell. Additionally the fault line was smeared with Elmer's. Later that night my dad, reading me Bridge to Terabithia, noticed what I'd done. He asked, "what happened?" At first I acted as if I had no idea what he was talking about. I suggested that perhaps the shell was suddenly beginning to hatch. Eventually I confessed after my dad assured me if it was an accident, he wouldn't be mad.

I'd made a mistake, I broke something that was, in my mind very valuable and it now could never be fixed. But I learned that it's okay, no one was mad except myself. Telling him was a relief. Now whenever I do make a mistake the mental image my brain creates is that broken sanddollar.

I'm really interested in hearing about how people at other organizations deal with mistakes?
Do you tell your boss?
Do you tell your clients or do you cover it up or spin your mistakes?
How does your boss react when you do make mistakes?

P.S. You can comment anonymously if you're worried someone at your organization might find out about your mistakes.