by It happens to all of us. We all screw up. When we were kids, it happened all the time. It’s part of the learning process if you don’t do it purposefully. I must admit that this is an uncommon and tricky article for me to write. First, it may look like I’m telling you what to do, and I’m not. I do as I always did. I experiment, see what works and doesn’t, and tell you all about it. It’s all based on my perspective and experience. Uncommon because I focus on technology, but this is related, and somewhat more transversal to everything we do.
It’s important to state that I’m not making any claims that this works for everyone and in every circumstance. It’s possible that it doesn’t work in your particular case, but I hope that it can help you.
Finally, you may have seen this (or a variation of it) in other places. I read a lot, and some stuff sticks in my mind, so it’s hard to know where things come from. I’m also trying to improve my knowledge base, which could help greatly here, but there’s nothing I can do now. If you see some literature about this, please send it to me, and I’ll be more than happy to include it here.
What not to do when you screw up?
So you screw up. It happens to everyone, regardless of what anyone says. The difference is what you can do about it, but most importantly, what not to do.
Don’t hide the problem
Hiding has two problems, in my opinion, especially in a professional environment. The first is that it makes things worse. If you drop a cookie on your couch, ignoring the problem worsens things. First, the ants, then the smell, and worse. Same with problems. Hiding the problem will only allow it to grow. Also, you’ll be wasting effort hiding it when you can solve it (or find someone who can do it for you).
Don’t ignore it
Same as before. Don’t let the screw-up grow and be filled with ants. Ignoring a problem doesn’t help anyone.
Don’t blame other people
Now, you think this is a common-sense article, and you would probably be right. These are common sense, but most of the time, they are not followed. Think of how many times, in your professional environment, for example, someone screws up and tries to blame someone else in fear of repercussions? Yeah, me too. Please don’t do it. No one wants bad Karma.
Panic
Have you ever seen a surgeon panicking? If something goes wrong, who would they help? They would just start panicking and screaming. “Keep Calm and Carry On,” and all will be good.
What to do?
Now we’re taking. So what should you do? Here are four things that you should do in sequence:
- Recognize the problem
- Assume you’re part of the responsibility
- Take action to fix it now
- Take action so that it doesn’t happen again.
Looks simple, and it is. Let’s look at each of them individually.
Recognize the problem
Remember the part about keeping calm? It’s essential in this case. It’s important to know what the problem is and what it is. Your website not loading is recognizing that there’s a problem. Knowing that the server is down is understanding what’s causing it. You can only solve a problem if you know what the problem is. Check where you can and understand where the screw-up happened, and make a list of stuff that can cause it.
Assume your part of the responsibility
Assuming your part of the responsibility is super important, and it’s the most challenging part. Don’t live your life running away from responsibility. It makes you a better person. Also, it shows other people that you can take responsibility for your problems and fix them. Notice that I said “…your part…” and not “all”. You’re not a martyr and should assume what you’ve done wrong, and that’s it. It doesn’t mean that you start blaming others for the rest, but you know exactly where you should have done (or not) something that generated the problem.
Take actions to fix the problem.
Now that you know there’s a problem, let’s try to fix it. This is the “stop the bleeding” part. What can you do to stop it and bring things back to normal? These are not permanent actions, but it’s essential to give you some breathing room so that you can fix things permanently. Stretching the analogy, you don’t worry about physiotherapy if you’re bleeding. That comes after. Fix the problem as best as possible, even if it only solves it for a few hours.
Take actions so that it doesn’t happen again
Now that the bleeding stopped (lots of blood today, sorry about that), we can take action so things don’t happen again. Your server went down. Now that you brought it back online, what can you do so that the problem doesn’t happen again? Deleted an important file? Probably do a backup once in a while to avoid losing things. Broke your iPhone screen. Probably use a phone case next time. These are simple examples, but I hope you understand my meaning. Don’t let it happen again because, if you’re caught again in the future unprepared for a problem that has already happened, it’s awful, mainly because you could have avoided it.
Final Thoughts
Notice that this doesn’t need to be a formal process. This could be a structure for an email or a conversation with your boss/partner/friend, etc., explaining what happened. Think of the “not to do section” if your boss/partner/friend, etc, finds out or thinks about you going to someone and saying. “X happened. It’s my fault, I’m sorry. I fixed it with Y, and it won’t happen again because of Z”. You’re providing the problem and already the fix to it.
So, next time something happens, think about this. I hope it helps you avoid uncomfortable or potentially damaging consequences.
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Photo by Conor Samuel on Unsplash
