prefab, I am a great one for Monday morning quarterbacking: "If I had said this instead of that it would have turned out differently. Sometimes that is a help though for future situations.

I try to not dwell on the mistakes but ignore them and try to get to the effective communication I had wanted to have in the first place. Apologizing is good, "but what I really thought you could benefit from was ..." and then get back to where you were going.