He empowered socdems and liberals and looked to them for policy advice after his own ideas turned out terribly. It's important to note that he wasn't acting alone, but both relied on and was guided by a bloc of liberal revisionists whose comparative privilege gave them reactionary brainworms.

What could he have done differently? Pretty much just not what he did: working with the more dedicated socialist bloc instead of browbeating them into working with the liberals, sticking with Andropov's reform program instead of replacing it with a liberal reform program, etc. Even just taking action to prevent Yeltsin from consolidating power when the hardliners gave him the chance and looked to him for leadership likely would have prevented the dissolution of the USSR. His actions were a perfect storm of naivety, incompetence, and inaction in the face of crisis.