“You are right,” Daniele admitted. “I have been keeping some quick stats on the mistakes we are finding in the files. Whenever I hold one of my accountability sessions, the mistakes disappear for about a week, then, boom, they are back again, and we find more.”
“So, finding the mistakes is not the problem?” I asked.
“No, and fixing the mistakes isn’t that hard either, but I want to stop the mistakes from being made in the first place.”
“So, tell me, Daniele, can the auditors stop the mistakes from happening?”
“No, they’re auditors, they don’t work on the files, they audit the files.”
“Okay, so who can stop the mistakes?” I pressed.
“Only my team can stop the mistakes.”
“What if you had your team audit the files?” I suggested.
“They can’t audit the files. They are too busy working the files. Can you imagine what would happen if they stopped production to check their work?”
Daniele stopped. A strange look emerged from her eyes as she thought about what she just said.
This is classic! Isn’t it hilarious how we can sometimes be so oblivious to our own dysfunction? I laughed so hard when I got to the end. Thanks Tom, for the always compelling, and sometimes humorous stories each day. I love forwarding these on to my staff.
Pogo said it best. “We have met the enemy and it is us.”
It’s funny how we believe that our associates work too hard and mistakes are allowed. Managers tend to look for the answers that are just in front of us but feel they need the greatest answer of all time.