The mistake that keeps coming back is not a people problem

There is one thing in your business that goes wrong every few weeks.

The wrong rate on an invoice. The delivery to the old address. The material that went out before the payment was confirmed. Each time there is a short conversation, somebody is told to be careful, and six weeks later it happens again.

Here is the test that settles it. Has it happened to more than one person?

If yes, it is not carelessness. Carelessness does not transfer between people. The process is causing it.

Why this is worth getting right

Because treating a design problem as a discipline problem damages two things at once.

The error keeps happening, so you keep paying for it. And the person who was holding it when it happened gets blamed for something the arrangement made likely, which is how good people become quiet people.

Quiet people do not report the next problem early. They report it when it can no longer be hidden.

How to find the real cause

Do not ask who did it. Ask what made it easy to do.

Usually the answer is one of a short list. The information was in two places and they did not match. The step depended on somebody remembering. There was no check at the point where it mattered, only one at the end. Two people thought the other one had done it.

Each of those has a fix that does not involve anybody trying harder. Put the figure in one place. Make the step impossible to skip. Move the check to where the mistake happens rather than where it is discovered.

And then it stops, properly, instead of getting better for a month.

Think of the mistake that keeps returning in your business. Has it happened to more than one person?

Finding the step that is causing a repeating error, rather than the person holding it, is work we do often. Tell us the mistake that keeps returning and we will help you find where it is built in.