Book 15 with Tom
I did not undertake a PhD because I fancied collecting another certificate for the wall.
Walls are already doing quite well without my help.
I did it because mistakes are everywhere, yet our understanding of them remains oddly fragmented.
We make them at work, at home, in leadership, in relationships and while trying to assemble flat-pack furniture without reading page three. They influence innovation, anxiety, confidence, accountability and decision-making.
But we still tend to treat a mistake as an isolated event.
Something went wrong. Find the cause. Fix it. Move on.
Useful, perhaps. Complete? Not remotely.
A mistake is more than a moment
A mistake has a life before it happens.
It begins with assumptions, habits, pressure, incomplete information, competing priorities and the wonderfully unreliable machinery of being human.
It also has a life afterwards.
There is the reaction. The blame. The lesson. The story we tell ourselves. The change we make, or avoid making. Sometimes the greatest damage is not the original mistake, but the fear we build around making another one.
That is why I believe mistakes deserve to be studied as more than accidents, errors or unfortunate outcomes.
They deserve a discipline.
I call that discipline Mistakeology.
Why a PhD?
An idea can be useful long before it is academically recognised.
But if Mistakeology is to become more than a word, a keynote or a collection of colourful observations, it needs scrutiny. It needs research questions. It needs evidence. It needs people willing to challenge its assumptions and improve its usefulness.
In short, it needs to survive contact with people far smarter than me.
The PhD was a deliberate step towards that.
Not an attempt to declare Mistakeology finished, but an attempt to make its existence discussable, testable and, eventually, usable.
Validation matters because once a field of study has a credible foundation, we can begin asking better questions about how its lessons might be applied within society.
Could a healthier relationship with mistakes improve innovation?
Could it reduce the anxiety attached to problems that have not happened yet?
Could organisations learn faster without turning blamelessness into meaninglessness?
Could leaders create accountability without creating fear?
Could we teach people not simply how to avoid mistakes, but how to respond to them intelligently?
Those questions are far bigger than one person, one thesis or one purple brand.
Good.
That is precisely the point.
I am not trying to own every answer
There is a peculiar temptation when you introduce an idea: you feel expected to defend every corner of it.
I would rather open the doors.
Mistakeology will not become valuable because I protect it from criticism. It will become valuable if researchers, educators, psychologists, neuroscientists, innovators, leaders and gloriously curious humans pull it apart and help rebuild it stronger.
My role is to put the question on the table.
What if mistakes are not merely things to prevent or recover from?
What if they are a distinct area of human behaviour worth understanding in their own right?
And what might change if we understood them better?
The work starts here
This article is the first in a Monday series documenting the development of Mistakeology.
Next week, I will share the proposed research and thesis questions behind it. Not because they are carved in stone, but because ideas improve when they are exposed to daylight, disagreement and the occasional raised eyebrow.
I want this series to become a working conversation, not a weekly broadcast from a purple pulpit.
So, if your work touches human behaviour, innovation, education, psychology, neuroscience, leadership or organisational learning, I would genuinely value your perspective.
What question about mistakes do you believe society has failed to ask?
Add it in the comments, challenge the premise, or message me if you would like to contribute to the conversation.
The discipline does not need more spectators.
It needs curious accomplices.
Founder of Mistakeology
Mr Purple, A Coach with Benefits