WHEN THINGS GO WRONG (and they go)
A protocol
for moving forward:
0. Double
check the work to make sure that there are no other problems within it.
1. Alert the
relevant parties.
2. Take
responsibility for what went wrong. This doesn’t mean that you intentionally
did it wrong, or that doing it right was part of your job description. It means
that you know something went wrong, you’re unhappy about it, and you accept
responsibility for letting it get by you and you accept responsibility for
making sure it won’t happen again.
3. Apologize. Not because it’s your fault, but
because the incident cost other people time or money or upset them, and you’re
sorry that they have to deal with that.
4. Come up
with a plan to ameliorate the impact of the problem. If you can’t come up with
a plan, say so and ask for suggestions.
5. Come up
with a plan to avoid the problem in the future.
6. Gather
feedback.
7. Thank
everyone for their patience and goodwill.
Either that,
or you could hide, dissemble, blame, shuffle along, scowl, depersonalize and
then move on.
By me
Move
on is undoubtedly
one of the steps. Holding on to
projects or ideas that do not progress is
a waste of time ... and time is what we lack in
Move on but this is not necessarily a final and definitive abandonment of projects ... Some
projects can be taken up.
They can be picked up with another team, at another point in time, with a (new) partnership
or technology ....
