Shame, Not Honesty, Blocks Learning From Failure: Honest Self-Examiners Deserve Grace
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/gabyhinsliff. "How do you bounce back from Liz Truss-level public failure? Don’t be shameless; do show remorse | Gaby Hinsliff | The Guardian." October 30, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
People who make serious mistakes and then honestly own up to them help everyone learn, so they deserve compassion rather than punishment. Shame pushes people to hide errors and makes things worse, while shameless deflection like Liz Truss's is no solution either. The real failing is in refusing to support those who are honest about what went wrong.
Conclusion
Institutions and society should offer grace, care and acceptance to conscientious people who honestly examine and admit serious mistakes, because the shame that drives cover-ups and prevents learning is more damaging than the failures themselves; the true shame lies with those who refuse such grace.
Premises
- Serious failures by otherwise conscientious people (e.g. a surgeon's 'never event', a civil servant's lost classified files) often occur through one inexplicable error made under pressure or exhaustion.
- These failures often hold the most useful lessons for preventing recurrence, but only if the people involved honestly examine and disclose what went wrong.
- Shame drives people to close ranks and cover up, as seen in Jackson's attempt to sneak the files back, which compounded his error, and in the repeated failures of public institutions that public inquiries keep recommending against.
- Shame also prevents thoughtful people from learning from failure and can ruin or even end lives (Jackson was close to suicide).
- Liz Truss's refusal to honestly confront her failure, blaming the Bank of England instead, shows the opposite, shameless and unproductive, pattern, and shamelessness deserves its bad reputation.
- Weston's candid account of her error, and the positive response to it, suggests that supportive professional treatment ('care and acceptance') makes honest acknowledgement possible.
Assumptions
- Shame is largely what causes people to hide mistakes, rather than fear of punishment, legal liability, or career consequences.
- Offering grace and support to those who admit mistakes will increase honest disclosure and organizational learning.
- Honest self-examination can be reliably distinguished from self-serving or performative contrition.
- The distinction between forgivable 'one dumb mistake' failures and unforgivable ones can be drawn fairly.
- Individual anecdotes (Weston, Jackson) are representative of wider patterns in professions and public institutions.