Catching Intelligence [Part 1 of 5]

Ever notice how software handles problems better than teams do?

When something goes wrong in code, the system doesn't crash. It catches the error, figures out what happened, and keeps running.

That error message isn't your code breaking. It's your code speaking.

(We've gotten good at listening to our code... so why are we bad at listening to our people?)

We expect our software to fail gracefully.

Error handling everywhere.

We expect things to go wrong.

So we prepare for it.

Yet in our teams? We treat human "errors" like system crashes.

We create environments where errors are threats, not data. Where "I don't know" is weakness, not wisdom. Where failure becomes identity rather than iteration.

Innovative teams flip this script.

They build human exception handlers. They create spaces where speaking up, being wrong, and failing visibly aren't just tolerated—they're expected.

Psychological safety isn't corporate buzzword theater.

It's the error handling system for human creativity.

High-performing teams don't have fewer failures. They have better exception handling. The error still occurs, but instead of crashing the system, it gets logged, examined, and used to strengthen the next iteration.

I've started meetings with this question: "What's blocking you to do your job this week?"

You know what happens?

People start talking.

But be careful… the loudest voices aren't usually the most valuable. (Volume doesn't equal value.)

The real insights?

They often come from unexpected directions.

That's good system design, not feel-good management.

Try it tomorrow. See what exceptions you catch.

Catching them is just the beginning... the real magic happens when you learn what to do with your catch.

I’ve realized we're mishandling all kinds of human intelligence.

What valuable signals are we treating as noise? (Spoiler: there are more than you think.)

In Part 2: The intelligence we're wasting daily.