I made a mistake recently at work… I think…

Not the kind that kills a project or gets anybody fired, but one that certainly led to the most easily-flustered to become flustered, easily.  I had spent so much time updating the directives and forecasts for the area of the project I control that I hadn’t looked over to anywhere else it may have had an impact.  And that’s my mistake; I should know it would do that.  So when the team looked at my work for the 4th time, it hit one person; “Hey, if this is going to happen at that time, did we account for XYZ?”

No.  We didn’t. None of us did.  And the potential impact wasn’t huge in the terms of effort, but certainly would get people’s attention in the monetary requirements.  But it was also a huge “IF.”  And it was also highly unlikely EVERYTHING would come to fruition in that forecast.  Which is why I went a bit over the usual ‘casting.  And… nobody caught it.  The senior members missed it.  I missed it.  We missed it.  A mistake was made.  After the smoke cleared from the panic alarms, I stepped back and realized I would NEVER make that mistake again. I doubt any of us will miss that portion in the future.  It’s now an official “IF-THEN” part of the work.

And I thought back to the other parts of my life where I’ve made mistakes DO NOT TELL MY WIFE I ADMITTED TO THIS I WILL EMBARRASS YOU AT WORK…  And wherein a lot of people make no mistakes, they also make very little noise or progress.  At least they try something a little different.  It starts conversations, it forces evolution, it builds character.  Sometimes it totally blows a part of the Machine to shit, but it at least shows some “give a shit.”  Some folks move up the ladder by never wavering from the narrow path of “The Middle.”  But hey, I missed something, and if I miss it again then i should be let go.  Like my granddad would tell me, “Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, I’m old as dirt and don’t appreciate this bull shit.”