It’s the kind of little mistake that can happen easily but be hard to overcome. The following story is true and is from a few years ago. And in case you’re wondering, no one was fired.
Imagine a fundraising lunch for a respectable nonprofit. Hundreds of people arrive at an attractive venue. They line up at a registration table to find out where they’ll be sitting.
The names are arranged alphabetically and that’s ground zero for the problem. You need to understand that the cards are divided into four equal sections by letter and each is designated with a sign that gives the range of letters for the respective section.
The first section is for those with last names that match up with the letters, “A” through “E.” The sign says, “A-E.”
The next group is for the letters, “F” through “K.” Do you see how this might be a problem? You see, the sign says, “F-K.”
For the pure of heart, this may mean nothing to you and that’s great. But for some, it suggests a four letter word. So you have people who paid hundreds of dollars to attend your event and their first brand experience is “F-K.”
It gives me a good belly laugh but this is an example of a common problem for busy organizations: You get so focused on completing tasks that you forget to see the big picture.
The staff member had been given the task of dividing up the attendee list into four equal groups by alphabet. That person was in a hurry. When you rush to get the job done, you don’t take a moment to look at the sign and decide that the range might be less controversial as “E-K.” The task was done but in this case, it’s about more than just completing the work but also reviewing it.
When people are under pressure and in a hurry, they start making mistakes. It could be a sign, a decimal point on an invoice, or a phone message sent to the wrong extension.
As a leader, you need to get your team to slow down from time to time. Some may feel this will hurt overall productivity. But to Clear the Path of this scenario, you need to eliminate mistakes before they happen as fixing them usually takes a lot longer than the original mistake.
Otherwise you’ll be like the student who only cracks the book open on the night before the big test. A lot of the time, you’ll squeak by…barely. Is this the best way to get an education?
Protect your team and protect their time so silly mistakes won’t define your organization.
