Main Idea
Do you struggle with little errors in your business? Do you have a strong desire to do things perfectly? How do you balance your desire for perfection with the fact that, as humans, we do make errors?
Expansion of Idea
There was a study of mountain climbing fatalities on Mount Everest from 1921 through 2006 and of the 212 fatalities, 56% of them died on the way down. That is after they reached their goal. Another 17% died on the way down after deciding that they could not get to the top.
I thought about this after I had a discussion with a client recently who was struggling with his team members making little errors. Overall, they are doing a great job and the number of errors is extremely small compared to the volume of transactions that they handle. A lot of factors could be contributing to these errors. Sometimes fatigue or hunger or a general lack of personal balance can create some issues.
I personally believe that a lot of problems occur when we are not as busy. If you go into a restaurant during a slow time, I think the odds of bad service go up considerably. The waiters are not focused on you. It is human nature. My point is that we can make mistakes anytime. During our busy times we have to be very careful. However, we can probably control more of the mistakes during our slower times by careful focus on our goals and our jobs. Those goals have to be that our jobs are critical to giving the customer service that our customers need and deserve.
Suggested Areas to Start
Brainstorm with your team about when you do make mistakes.
Decide if there are any systems that can be implemented to reduce the mistakes.
Build awareness of potential problems during slower times by talking to your team about this.