I’m not sure I had said “It’s not my fault” too many times before…except maybe to my parents and it definitely WAS my sister’s fault.  But after being on the receiving end of “It’s not our fault”  from a number of sub-contractors, I realized how irksome it is to hear: 

• The printer did it.
• It’s the shipper’s fault. 
• Production dropped the ball. 
• Blah de dah de dah. 

When I am Cathy Customer and I pay for something, I do NOT care whose fault it is.  I just want to get whatever it is I paid for.   And that helped me realize an important distinction when dealing with mistakes: 

 This distinction has helped me, my colleagues and many clients get closer to masterful mistake management by dropping the blame game and instead focusing energy on working together on the real issue…providing whatever it is the customer was supposed to get.  

The next step can get us even closer to masterful mistake management.   Once we resolve the situation for our customer,  it’s important to look at the cause of the issue, which may very well involve delving into whatever happened at the printer or the shipper or in production.   Not to establish blame.  But to determine a way to prevent re-occurence.

By the way, this may not apply to ALL situations.  And it is not intended to take away the responsibility of others involved, including the customer.   The common sense to test hot coffee before taking a swig comes to mind.   When used appropriately –  it contributes beautifully to masterful mistake management.

We invite you to post the above quote (details below)  and join us in the story telling. 

Related Articles: 

• Theme for the Month:  Mistake Management
• Quote of the Week:  On Mistakes & Discovery
• 10+ Benefits of Masterful Mistake Management
• They Turned Lemons into Lemonade
• They Beat the Heat and Turned Lemons into Lemonade
• Yes! We Celebrate Mistakes!
• Action Action We Want Action
• Brainteaser of the Week #45
• Making Things Right at UNC
• Movie of the Week:  The Lemonade Stand

• Quote of the Week:  It’s Not Our Fault
• 10 “Mistakes” to Maximize
• Hooray for Viking Travel
• Hooray for Zane’s Cycles
• Brainteaser of the Week #46

Post the above quote as wallpaper for your computer screen in 3 easy steps:

1. Click on the image.
2. Click again to enlarge it.
3. Right click and then select “Set as desktop background”.

Voila! There’s still plenty of room on the left side of the screen for all your shortcut icons.

The above quote is from the Serious About Service section of our Quote Library.   For  152 additional motivational and instructional quotes in two different formats – for your computer screen and as a printable PDF, visit our Quote Library.

Don’t have access to the library yet? Get your password here.

Note:    If you don’t like your new wallpaper, don’t want to replace it with a quote from the Business Class Quote Library and don’t know how to get rid of it……

Go to your control panel. Select “Display”. Select “Desktop”. And then choose from the designs offered.

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