Getting it right after getting it wrong

I’ve been meaning to post about this for a couple of weeks. By now most of you have probably heard about the Amazon/Kindle/Orwell debacle, where books were deleted from customers’ Kindle devices after Amazon discovered that the publisher didn’t have the correct rights. Jeff Bezos posted the following apology:

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com

I love this! Short, honest, to the point. He admitted the screw-up and promised to do better in the future. Most organizations are going to make a mess of things at one point or another, although maybe not as spectacularly and publicly as Amazon. Forget the spin. Forget false justifications or excessive groveling. Suck it up, admit you were wrong, fix it and move on. This shows great leadership. [via an excellent post on Making Light]