Missed takes
How mistakes are an integral party of building systems
Especially when something is new, we all make mistakes. There are some that are terminal. No way to recover from them. We can only prevent them.
The others however are much more common. They are also the small little things that hold us back. Systems can help you grow out of those too.
For e.g. (rant alert!) my article If not now, then when? was thought of for a completely different purpose than what I ended up writing. The article needed to be published before midnight.
I had a very powerful topic in mind, but because of too many things happening on that day, I couldn't fully recollect what it was. Now that I remember, the currently written article is good, but for a slightly different topic - writing stuff down in the moment you get the thought.
Ironically, that's exactly what I missed doing in that article 😂
The brain is a finicky creature and subtle things are very slippery. I meant to write about using the power of the current, fresh moment, but ended up writing about writing in the moment. Confusing to read also, isn't it!
Anyway, this ‘missed take’ is an important one for me to tighten up my system. Now I know to also write or record the gist of the article, instead of just a fancy title in my drafts. That way I can continue and complete that chain of thought.
Acknowledging the mistake and looking at the root cause are very critical aspects of building systems. They help you get the right ‘fitting’ of systems for any organisation or person. Ensuring the mistake has no chance to happen.
A good example I read somewhere was from the aviation industry - pilots would sometimes doze off on back to back flights. This would lead to scares and crashes. But this doesn't happen anymore. They simply increased the mandatory rest time between any back to back flights for pilots & viola! The mistake is forever gone.
Similarly, what are the things you can do to make sure mistakes don't stand a chance in your business?
If you think it's too much work, then you've missed this takeaway!