When you make an error in judgment or actual execution of an activity, this is a misstep.   In essence, you could have made a mistake due to poor reasoning, carelessness or possibly it is just the result of insufficient knowledge or perhaps just an unintentional oversight.

Whether as a result of Murphy’s law (i.e., things can and will go wrong) or due to your own actions or judgment being flawed, missteps will happen.  Avoiding the risk of a misstep is a planning exercise, and taking action when they occur is risk mitigation. 

Avoidance

Planning for the unexpected is a great way to enable potential missteps to be identified.  Checkpoint activities can be scheduled to identify actions if things are going off track.  This allows for actions to be taken to remedy mistakes before they become obvious or impactful. 

Risk Mitigation

Sometimes, regardless of how detailed the planning is misstepping will occur.  Recognizing this and being prepared, that is outlining what the action will be to correct the mistake, will enable a quick and effective response to errors. 

Ignore

A common reaction to mistakes is to ignore their occurrence and hope no one will notice. This approach is a little like gambling if your luck prevails no one will notice and there will be no negative consequences, particularly against you. 

Or even when noticed, blame and associated consequences will not be associated with you.  The downside is, like gambling, the winning result is rare and intermittent, although psychologically the intermittent reward  reinforces this behaviour it is not optimal. 

Avoiding the mistake or properly mitigating when a mistake occurs are by far the best approach.  Hiding and hoping, not so much.