How much time will you save if you can prevent silly mistakes at work? These are the little problems that aren’t critical but are embarrassing or time consuming to fix. For instance, it’s the typo in the brochure you just printed.
In this week’s edition of our weekly productivity series, we talk about some easy ways you can prevent these silly mistakes, before they go public.
What Productivity Questions Does This Video Answer?
- How do you prevent silly mistakes at work?
- How can certain times of the day produce more mistakes?
- Should you reward people for catching mistakes at work?
- Why you should have a checklist for outgoing messages?
Video Transcript for Preparing for Prevent Silly Mistakes at Work
Let’s fix some of those silly mistakes that are plaguing your organization. If you’re like me, you hate those little typos that can appear in a document or or a website. And you’re wondering, “How is this allowed to happen?”
Often, the person who is writing the material, they are so close to it that they may not notice the mistake that pops up in the editing process.
For this reason, I think it’s good to have things reviewed by an extra pair of eyes. Someone in the office who is good at grammar, who can notice things that might be a little off, a double word, something like that and have them check it out.
If this person is doing this on a consistent basis, make sure you’re rewarding him or her in some way. You’re giving them extra work to do, it’s important work to do, recognize it in some fashion. It will really help.
Another thing you can do is to create a checklist. So, before someone before something gets published or put online, you have a checklist for things that have to happen. This way, you’ve created a proofing process and you’ll know for sure that people are following it.
Final tip, consider if there is a certain time when mistakes are happening. If it’s at 4:50 and people are racing to get things done, maybe you should try not to have them do this type of project at that time, when they may be a little tired, may be half out the door. Reschedule things to a more productive and accurate time.
Mistakes will always be there but if you can catch them, your life will be that much easier.
About This Video Series
Ken Okel’s ongoing Employee Productivity video series will make you more effective on the job. Every week, you’ll learn a new, easy to understand, problem solving tip that you can use right away, like how to prevent silly mistakes at work.
Tired of a productivity problem, like why the details matter at work? Let us know and we’ll feature it in an upcoming episode.
About Ken Okel
As a motivational speaker, Ken Okel works with leaders and organizations to boost productivity, performance, and profits. At conferences, conventions, and company meetings, he engages audiences with new ways to maximize their time at work. To see a sample of his keynote and workshop presentations, visit his video page.
