Stupid stuff is going to happen. Expect it. It’s part of our complex and highly interdependent world. People will make mistakes. A lot of them. Layer on top of that some incredibly politically charged cultures (for more on that subject see “Hot Heads and Karma”), and there’s an abundance of potentially bad outcomes.

There will be times where stupid stuff will happen to you (and yes, there are times you will do stupid stuff—accept it as axiomatic). When really stupid stuff happens, it can feel like others are conspiring against you. It can seem like a plot of Oliver Stone proportions. During those situations, the outcomes are mostly binary: You defuse the situation or it blows up, sometimes causing irreparable harm to your career or reputation. You may even have an urge to attack the responsible individual. Doing so can create a situation like backing a rabid ferret into a corner. When you create that dynamic, they’re most likely to attack back—and rabid ferrets can be nasty!

There are ways to defuse these events simply by adopting the right mindset.

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