How to Prevent Mistakes at Work

If you want to prevent mistakes at work, then you need to change the way you think about these challenges. Too often, a mistake is immediately followed by the blame game.

The problem is that blaming someone for a mistake at work may not get to the root cause of the problem. It may allow a situation to continue that will produce more mistakes. Learning how to address these problems gives you a great to way to improve productivity and build teamwork.

In this episode of our Productivity Edge series, you will learn some easy ways for how you can approach mistakes in a more proactive fashion. You’ll also learn how to identify when these goofs are a sign of a larger problem.

What Productivity Questions Does This Video Answer?

How to prevent mistakes at work?
How to solve problems at work?
What can I do to build teamwork after mistakes?
How can I be a better leader?

Video Transcript

When it comes to mistakes, stop playing the blame game. In a lot of organizations when a mistake does occur, it’s more of the blame than the problem. And this allows is the problem to happen again.

We don’t want that. So when a mistake happens, maybe hold off on the blame, get everyone together, and figure out a few things. First, what went wrong? What happened? Was someone supposed to order 500 or something and instead it was 5000?

Was it a handwriting issue? Did someone hear wrong? See if you can figure out what happened.

Next, consider the circumstances. You might have a top performer who makes an uncharacteristic mistake. Is it because that person is swamped with a whole bunch of duties? You just added one more thing which led to a mistake.

So in that case, the problem may not be the employee but the workload and the expectations that are put on them. In this instance you might want to take some work away. perhaps give the project to someone else.

You want to make sure that someone can be successful and then if someone feels like, I don’t know if I get this all done, they’re not trying to do something where a mistake could be inevitable.

Finally, you want to make sure you can prevent the mistake. Get people together, say this is what happened, how do we prevent it. See if you can come up with a agreed-upon solution by all.

Now occasionally the mistake was just a goof. Someone was working too hard, too fast, it happened. Make sure you can define the problem. See if you come up with a long-term solution. The idea is you remove as many of these mistakes as possible. It will make your organization more effective.

About This Video Series

Ken Okel’s ongoing Productivity Edge video series will make you more effective on the job. Every week, you’ll learn a new, easy to understand tip that you can use right away.

Got a productivity problem? Let us know and we’ll feature it in an upcoming episode.

Let’s Make Your Meeting Memorable

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, including how to prevent mistakes at work. Sometimes audience members enjoying making paper hats during a special leadership exercise. To see a sample of his keynote and workshop presentations, visit: https://www.kenokel.com/videos/