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- Owning Your Mistake
- Types Of Mistakes
- Negligence
- Lack Of Information
- Lack Of Understanding
- Reacting
- ‘Too Long; Didn’t Read’ Summary
Hello everyone. Today I share the story of me making a mistake at work early on in my project management career. Have a laugh at my expense, and check out these four common causes of workplace mistakes! Enjoy.
Making A Mistake At Work: One Of My Many Stories…
“Yeah, we don’t have most of the stuff here, only a few items”, I heard on the phone.
“I know we have been using this kit regularly. I was told it was dropped off early this morning, where could they have gone?”
“Maybe someone took it for another project”, I got in response.
“Unreal. We need that kit for work happening tonight. Several inspectors are going to be there so there’s no way we can not have that stuff onsite. Do you know if we have any more kits we can look through?” I said.
“Not sure. There’s a bunch of loose equipment you can go through if you want. But we just looked through the box from the picture you sent and only a few things are in here.”
- The person on the other line: the manager of our bustling warehouse.
- The “stuff”: Concrete testing equipment.
- The testing kits: Non-descript grey plastic boxes full of various pumps, scoopers, gauges, rods and other items. Think of a giant version of a basic tool box.
- Other project(s): The many construction projects our company had going on statewide that involved similar concrete work. All had different hours, workers, schedules and distances from the office. Many were bought specifically for one project aka they weren’t easy to get your hands on (think handcuffed-to-briefcase), and it’d take hours to get one if you could. The nature of our departments projects meant that we had no field offices. In other words, a Chevy regular cab truck was the field office.
- Work happening tonight: A scheduled concrete pour at a ‘high profile’ location. For anyone familiar with construction, there are typically more stressful than other work, since concrete dries quick (those trucks can only spin for so long!), it’s expensive, and a lot can go wrong. Couple that with several inspectors who’s only job is to show up and test the concrete, who were scheduled a few days before, and it’s cranked up a notch.
- “A bunch of loose equipment”: a hodgepodge of leftover stuff from old kits that won’t include everything missing.
- “The box from the picture”: A cellphone photo I had taken of a complete testing kit we used a couple weeks before, with the parts included that we need. Note: this included the non-descript grey plastic box.
I already had a stacked to-do list, and this was a nightmare. Through a couple of coordinated foreman pick ups/drop offs from the field to the office, the concrete kit we need somehow went missing, or at least some items did. We don’t have the testing kit we need TONIGHT. It was about 10am, and through a couple of quick conversations, there are no kits available. I’m a dead man if I don’t pull off a Hail Mary.
After relaying this to my very busy boss, he told me to make some calls, get the equipment we need from a local supplier or two, and get that kit ready for tonight ASAP or we’ll be in deep doo doo.
I didn’t know it, but I was about to learn a valuable lesson!
I call a couple of places – Murphy’s Law affirms that nobody has everything from the missing item list. So I got in the car and drove around a 15 mile radius to a few different places. Over the course of the next 4.5 hours, I ran around and painstakingly found everything. I raced back to the office in the first car I bought myself (I was 22 at this time). About 10 minutes from the office, the boss calls. He said they found the kit, and that he needs to speak to me when I get back. Oh damn.
Turns out, there were several non-descript grey boxes in the warehouse (“the shop”). The one from the picture? The handle had broken on it shortly after I took the picture. Naturally, a foreman who needed the kit took out the equipment, found another grey box with a good handle, and switched them. The broken-handle box now had some of the miscellaneous testing sh*t in it that normally collected dust in the shop. The concrete testing kit switched hands several times after, and it’s anyone’s guess how many other things were bartered, traded and exchanged between foremen since. Regardless, the complete kit was sitting in the shop, less than 10-ft away from the original box.
Long story short, the box changed, my pictures were wrong, and normal chaos of construction ensued:
- No one said anything about switching boxes, at least not to me.
- I asked one foreman to coordinate getting the testing kit he was using to another foreman in the field.
- They met on the highway somewhere at night and exchanged the box.
- The other foreman dropped the box off in the shop on their way home (about 4am), in a room where there were a few others.
- The shop manager, upon request, checked the specific box out that I told him to look for, and he relayed the info to me in the morning.
- MOST IMPORTANTLY:
- I didn’t go over to the shop and look myself! After all, it wasn’t these guys’ responsibility to coordinate the test equipment between project – they had plenty of other things to do. It was mine.
- I didn’t dig deeper. It was my assumption that someone had rifled through the boxes (not uncommon), taken a few key components that morning and took it to a daytime project somewhere.
I returned to the office and walked into my boss’s office, ready to be lashed for making the mistake….
Taking Ownership Of Your Mistakes
My boss at the time, thankfully, didn’t scold or get angry unprompted – a good boss who genuinely wants to see you do well. This of course was a “prompted” experience, and I got what I deserved. It didn’t last though, and I received one of the best pieces of advice I ever got:
“Sometimes, You Just Need To Double Check The F****** Box.”
-A Good Boss
This was a happy ending – I lived to work through another hectic day. But I walked away from that conversation knowing these few things:
- Negligence: It was on me. I was forgiven since I had a reputation for doing what it takes to get the job done, but because of this, I had generally been running around a lot and felt the mistake was caused by the oversight of someone else, not me. But it was a mistake I was solely responsible for. The right stuff was there the whole time! I could have saved hours. I was rightfully told that as a project manager, you are ultimately responsible in nearly all circumstances. Period!
- Lack of Information: No one cares about your work as much as you do. If you want something done, you need to fully understand the scope of it, and see to it that the entire thing is done right. In this instance, I did not gather enough information from others that would have lead me to the solution much faster.
- Lack of Understanding: The box from the picture was in the shop, but it was “missing parts”. The foreman also told me that he dropped the box off. Two plus two should equal four, right? Well, both of those things ended up being true, yet here we are! I should’ve known that something was not adding up and the office was only a two minute walk from the shop. My lack of understanding in this situation led me to jump to assumptions.
- Reacting: I didn’t plan or think. The high-pressure nature of the situation made me drop everything else I was doing and rush to get the job done. In other words, I reacted. Oh, and I promised to stay late and finish the few things I didn’t get done while running around from place to place earlier that day. Fair.
I believe these four things are generally what cause mistakes to be made. Since I did all four of them in one situation, I promise that this article is not written with any judgement or holier-than-thou attitude. Let’s take a look at these four things that contribute to you making a mistake at work!
1. Making A Mistake At Work: Negligence
It happens. Everyone gets drawn in this raffle eventually – straight up dropping the ball. As a matter of fact, one source states that the average American makes 118 mistakes in a year at work! That’s about one every two days when not counting weekends. While making mistakes is nothing to aspire to, there’s a reasonable chance you make fewer mistakes than average. Give yourself some self-love and a break if you flubbed a play!
Below are a few common ways we make mistakes at work due to negligence, and a simple tip for minimizing each.
Problem: Turning In Something Incomplete Or Wrong
Solution: Give Yourself Time To Double-Check & Proofread.
- Proof-read emails before sending:
- Are the appropriate people copied (or not)?
- Are the right documents attached?
- Are there any typos?
- Make an outline for drafting letters or creating submittal documents:
- For writing a letter, jot down a list of the points you want to hit. Nothing fancy, just short and sweet.
- Check back to the outline every 20-30 minutes as you’re writing to make sure you’re on track.
- For more complex document packages, the outline can double as a table of contents / sequence.
- Have someone double check your work:
- As they say, two sets of eyes are more than one. For younger workers just starting out, review the package you put together before sending it. Even if you did a great job, they may still see something out of sheer experience.
Problem: Forgetting To Do Something
Solution: Use Reminder Tools
- I forget almost everything I don’t write down. If someone tells me to be at a certain place, or I need to follow up with somebody, I plug it in the Calendar feature on my phone.
- When doing this, set two alerts!
- Who still likes post-it notes? Keep a stack near you, and physically put a note where you can’t not see it. Need to send a quick email before the end of the day? Put the post-it on your bag / phone / wherever you’ll trip over it.
Problem: Missing Something Obvious
Solution: Minimize Multi-Tasking, Build Structure & Focus!
- Block out specific times in the day to check email & texts. I think each individual needs to figure out the frequency, as every business is different. I think I got it down to a reasonable balance:
- For example, in construction the phone rings every two minutes. Usually it will be something that’s urgent (need it ASAP) but not super important (building isn’t falling down).
- In most cases, someone can wait less than an hour for me to get back to them.
- I like to use this practice, tweak as you like: Work for 45 minutes straight, then use the remaining 15 minutes to make calls, respond to emails/texts, and refill that coffee. This is easy because it follows the clock.
- 8:00-8:45am = Write a letter, proofread and send.
- 8:45-9:00am = Text that person, call so and so, coffee time.
- Create a list of things you WILL finish TODAY, and put the rest away!
- I like to keep this to less than 10 items total, and about 2-3 of them are big, meaty tasks. The balance can be anything, even “turn in timesheet”, “text so-and-so about tomorrow’s meeting”, etc.
- Personally, I put the 2-3 big things at the top, and separately the medium/smaller stuff at the bottom.
- Literally put other stuff out of your sight…
“They say a cluttered desk means a cluttered mind. I say an empty desk means an…”
“Empty mind.”
-Michael Scott & Dwight Schrute, Respectively
- Keep your desk clean!
- I like to use the first 30 minutes of the day to do miscellaneous administrative stuff I need done. Go through that dusty pile of papers, file the important stuff in a manila folder, scan papers and digitally save them, and LET THAT SHREDDER RIP (recycle!)
- With the paper gone, put folders in a drawer. Put cables away. Get rid of old post-its etc.
- You’ll get momentum going, and have a clear mind once this is done. This is the work equivalent to the importance of making your bed in the morning.
2. Making A Mistake At Work: Lack Of Information
A lack of information can be broken down into a few categories:
- Someone didn’t give you the information.
- You didn’t take the information.
- You have the wrong information.
In my crazy story above, there was a combination of things happening:
- I wasn’t told that the grey case was switched out from the case in my picture.
- I didn’t ask enough questions.
- I was told that the testing equipment wasn’t in the shop.
Problem: Someone didn’t give you the information.
Solution: Go to the source for check-ins to make sure you’re on track.
- If this is a coworker/client giving you an assignment, send them a brief email recapping what you’re working on shortly after getting the assignment. Hint: this can be the outline mentioned in the previous sections.
- Similarly, do a quick rough draft of what you’re expected to do. I consider a quick outline something that’s 15-60 minutes of work, depending on the assignment.
- Set up a check-in meeting well before the due date.
- If the assignment is due at the end of the day, meet/talk on the phone/email around 2pm if possible.
- If it’s due tomorrow, do this at the end of the day today.
- If it’s due in a week, set one a few days from now.
Problem: You Didn’t Take The Information
Solution: Take Good Notes, Ask Good Questions
- Bring a pen and paper everywhere you go, especially to meetings.
- Write short, simple bullet lists.
- Take note of any dates, times and people/parties.
- Speak up. If you don’t understand something, it’s OK. It’s better to ask a question up front, rather than have it snowball on the back end.
- Come up with a list of questions, and email it to all parties involved as early as possible.
- This keeps everyone on the same page, shows your initiative and may redefine what’s expected into something better.
Problem: You Have The Wrong Information
Solution: Do All Of The Above, With A Twist
Humans are flawed. We do make many mistakes, including making mistakes at work, as discussed above! In project management, human error is a huge risk; there’s a lot of information floating around and even more exchanged between people. Sometimes the wrong info will come your way.
Taking the steps above is like a water filtration process for the information you have; it catches the build-up, plaque and other crap before it ever reaches the destination.
In this way, consider the fact that a LOT of information you get may not be correct, and you need to take certain precautionary steps via habits to filter it down and get it right.
3. Making A Mistake At Work: Lack Of Understanding
Here’s a good quote:
“If You Aren’t Failing, You Aren’t Trying”
-An Ambitious Person
If you’re “trying”, you’re going to be pushing the pace on what you’re doing. This means working on things you haven’t done before and taking risks.
A mistake caused by lack of understanding usually involves one of the following:
- This is the first time you’re trying something or you’re inexperienced.
- You don’t know how to do something, and don’t have instruction.
- You made incorrect assumptions.
In my story, I mostly made assumptions. I assumed the guys in the shop checked other boxes. I assumed they knew the parts weren’t there. I assumed someone else took the stuff we needed. But I’ve made the other mistakes, too. Here’s a few ideas to work around your understanding.
Problem: You’re inexperienced.
Solution: Talk with someone who does! Directly or indirectly.
Project management is a complex field, where experience plays a major role in your abilities. There are many ways to gain this wisdom:
- If you’ve never submitted a bill to a client, it’s a good idea to look at some other bills your company has submitted before you even begin your own.
- If you need to give a presentation to a client for your company, who else has given them already? Are there any Powerpoints they’ve done that you can look at?
- If there’s a portion of the project you haven’t worked with before – a coding language, a testing process, a type of construction – DO NOT attempt on your own. Move forward, not backward. As they say…
“Pride Comes Before The Fall.”
-Religious Texts & Dramatic Movies
Problem: You Don’t Have Instruction & Can’t Get It At Work
Solution: Look It Up Online.
Seriously, this is huge. Think about it – we almost always have a mini computer at our side 24/7 these days. Look it up online and avoid making many mistakes!
- Search using “search engine hacks” to help find exactly what you need. Some good and simple ones:
- Use terms – including quotations – like “how to” “install a shoring post”; or “how to” “accelerated project schedule”. Quotations mean that specific term will be included in every result shown.
- Narrow down a specific website. If you want to look on WikiHow for articles on making a project schedule, you can search: site:www.wikihow.com project schedule
It might seem corny or oversimplified, but the best solutions usually are.
Problem: You’ve Made An Assumption
Solution: Think of ways things get f*cked up & rule out the easy stuff first.
Did you know that most problems reported to IT technicians are solved by plugging the computer in, or turning it on? Grab some popcorn and check out this list of computer problems and insanely simple solutions. The worst part? We think we’re so damn smart all the time. We make assumptions because we automatically think certain things are true.
Look at the assumptions above that I made in my story above. In real time, that happened in a minute or two, max. Here’s how to not assume:
- Rule out the insanely simple possibilities first by breaking things down into child-level of simplicity.
- Take the time to check each one. In my example:
- Did they look in the right box?
- Did the foreman drop it off somewhere else?
- Did the person look at the picture and miss something?
- Take note of your own thoughts. Do they make sense? Are they plausible? Looking back, I noticed that I just assumed somebody took the equipment we needed, even though it would have happened in the span of a couple hours. Possible, but not likely. Literally ask yourself, “am I assuming anything here?”
4. Making A Mistake At Work: Reacting
You know how when you’re watching someone else participate in an activity like a sports game or competition, the right things to do are so obvious from the sidelines? “They should do _____, or _____! How can the person doing activity xyz not see this?!
On the flip side, when you’re the one doing said activity, you’re in it. You’re emotionally invested in doing well, not looking bad, not letting others down, etc. You’re just doing whatever you can to survive as quickly as possible. You know what’s at stake and have a mild form of flight-of-fight mentality (can’t be that bad if it’s fun, right?…).
You’re reacting! Easy to see when you aren’t feeling it, hard to when you are.
Here are a few reasons why people react:
- They’re emotionally invested in the outcome.
- They’re stressed or under pressure.
- They don’t have a plan.
Everything is on fire, right?? Luckily, there’s a few things you can do on a regular basis in a preventative manner to get around these things.
First of all – take a DEEP breath. Expand your ribs, relax your stomach, and control the in, hold, and out portions of the breaking, such as four seconds – two seconds – four seconds. Do this for a minute straight. Go to the bathroom if you need to.
Deep breathing has many amazing benefits. Some benefits of deep breathing include increased oxygen flow to the mind and body, lower blood pressure and the release of endorphins.
Problem: Emotionally invested in the outcome.
Solution: Think of why you’re so invested, and see if the reasons are legit.
As we discussed, mistakes happen. Chances are, there’s a chain of thoughts you can follow to get to the heart of the matter.
Of course I cared about making sure the concrete pour went well for the company. But honestly? I cared about not getting in trouble! If the concrete testing equipment wasn’t on hand, we’d have to cancel. The pour would be delayed, the project would be delayed, the Client would need an explanation, and internal management would be pissed about wasting money and tarnishing our reputation. My personal reputation would have been tarnished, I’d get yelled at, I’d be under more scrutiny in the future, and I might not get that promotion/get fired! I’d not be good at what I did, I’d be a failure, etc.
Ask yourself these questions the next time you feel emotionally invested:
- Why do I care about this so much?
- What’s the worst possible outcome?
- Is this problem solely my own fault, or is it a combo of things?
- How would I react if someone working for me did this?
- How would I feel about this if I was a third-party onlooker?
- If the worst happens, am I really useless/stupid/whatever insecurity?
Problem: You’re stressed and under pressure.
Solution: Take time every day and every week to organize yourself.
I like to generally write out a ‘status update’ each week. This is a general breakdown of everything on my plate, the next couple of steps needed for each, etc. From there, I write out the few things I need to do every day. Doing this minimizes stress in the following ways:
- At most, I did a once-over of my list five-six days ago. There aren’t many surprises that can sneak up when you take a big picture look at your work every week.
- I’ve got my list of a few things to do today. I know exactly what I want to do that day.
- I have a sense of priorities through these processes.
- Try this for a couple of weeks, and I promise with as much surety as possible that you will feel less stressed overall at work.
Problem: You Don’t Have A Plan
Solution: Plan For Chaos With Flexibility
“The Devil You Know Is Better Than The Devil You Don’t”
-Said By Many
I like to take note of the things I can do on the go. When making a to do list, I make note of tasks I can do from the phone vs. ones I need to work on with others, or only do at the office/site etc. If you need to speak with vendors, touch base on an activity, or follow up with people, you know you can do these things from anywhere you have a phone signal.
Need to run out the door on short notice? Need to drive an hour each way to an emergency meeting? You can still get things done and stay on track when you know what you can work on certain things efficiently. Make room for unexpected things every day, because chances are, there will always be something.
In Conclusion…
Let’s stick with the theme and summarize this thing into a clean list! Here are the ways you can deal with making a mistake at work when they happen, and daily habits you can use to overall minimize making mistakes at work:
- Take ownership.
- Give yourself some love.
- Proof-read emails before sending.
- Have someone double check your work.
- Plug appointments and deadlines into your calendar right away, and set two reminders.
- Use post-it notes or scrap paper, and strategically place these notes where you’ll trip over them (hypothetical, of course).
- Block out specific times in the day to check email & texts.
- Create a list of things you WILL finish TODAY, and put the rest away! Keep 1-3 big things on the list, and the rest small, “bite size” tasks (a few minutes each).
- Keep your desk clean, and spend 20-30 minutes per day on administrative/organizational processes.
- If a coworker/client gives you an assignment, send them a brief email recapping what you’re working on shortly after getting the assignment. Hint: this can be the outline mentioned in the previous sections.
- Similarly, do a quick rough draft of what you’re expected to do. I consider a quick outline something that’s 15-60 minutes of work, depending on the assignment. This should take about 20% of the total time this assignment takes.
- Following the prior point: Set up a check-in meeting well before the due date. If the assignment is due at the end of the day, discuss around 2pm. If it’s due tomorrow, review today before the end of the day. If it’s due in a week, have a review a few days prior.
- Bring a pen and paper everywhere you go, especially to meetings.
- Write short, simple bullet lists.
- Take note of any dates, times and people/parties.
- Speak up. If you don’t understand something, it’s OK. It’s better to ask a question up front, rather than have it snowball on the back end.
- Following a meeting or assignment, come up with a list of questions, and email it to all parties involved as early as possible. This keeps everyone on the same page, shows your initiative and may redefine what’s expected into something better.
- Taking the steps above is like a water filtration process for the information you have; it catches the build-up, plaque and other crap before it ever reaches the destination.
- Accept your inexperience. Some examples:
- If you’ve never submitted a bill to a client, it’s a good idea to look at some other bills your company has submitted before you even begin your own.
- If you need to give a presentation to a client for your company, who else has given them already? Are there any Powerpoints they’ve done that you can look at?
- If there’s a portion of the project you haven’t worked with before – a coding language, a testing process, a type of construction – DO NOT attempt on your own. Move forward, not backward.
- Look things up on the internet. Search using “search engine hacks” to help find exactly what you need.
- Don’t make assumptions unnecessarily: Rule out the insanely simple possibilities first by breaking things down into child-level of simplicity.
- Manage emotional investment:
- Why do I care about this so much?
- What’s the worst possible outcome?
- Is this problem solely my own fault, or is it a combo of things?
- How would I react if someone working for me did this?
- How would I feel about this if I was a third-party onlooker?
- If the worst happens, am I really useless/stupid/whatever insecurity?
- Plan For Surprises: Know which tasks can be done on the go, which can be done at the office vs at home, etc.
I hope you found this article helpful! Please leave your thoughts in the comments, and subscribe to our email list below, so we can send you new articles. Thank you for reading!
