When an employee seems to be error-prone do not rush to blame them – look closer. It has become something of a stereotype to say some people are walking calamities. But in the workplace they can be amongst your most valuable employees
Although the vicissitudes of life are largely random, errors are not. They tend to cluster around situations rather than people. Yes, there is a personal element to events. If someone sits in an armchair all day few things will go wrong for them – but if they are active then they will increase the chances of unplanned outcomes, some of which will be unwelcome. People also differ in their level of risk aversion. A totally risk aversive employee may make the least mistakes, but is also the least productive person in the company. Taking risks is essential for all business life. But it is calculated risks that need to be taken and the calculations must be sound.
The way that people deal with risks and the way that failure is treated is also culturally conditioned. In a newly published book entitled “China’s Next Strategic Advantage” Professor YIP and Dr Bruce McKern point out the differing approaches to risk taken by Chinese and western enterprises. In China there is today a much greater tolerance of mistakes than in, for instance, the USA. The very public daily staff meetings of employees in China further illustrates how team dynamics operates to foster ideas for improvements in service and, then takes it out of the arena of personal risk. If something does not work – well the team had all backed it.
So rather than see an employee as error-prone, look first at the nature of their work, the systems they are using, their scope for decision making, why there was no collegiate backing for their actions and what safeguards are in place. Two people may operate the system, but one is trying to get the most efficiency out of it. The challenging employee is going to uncover its weaknesses – so that the system can be rectified. If anyone should be reprimanded it is the cautious employee.
Rather than see things in terms of risk and failure we should look at them in terms of probability. In the world of probability failure is inevitable and the more there is variety, work intensity and complexity the more frequently error will arise. Making probability your friend requires the acceptance that many events are counter-intuitive. They do not seem to make sense and that is why the ordinary employee cannot see or deal with them. Take, for example, a situation in a pure probability environment – horse racing. If you study form it will become clear that one horse is the clear favourite – and it is true that favourites do win more often than any other horse, but the “odds” offered take that into account. So if everyone does the obvious thing and bets on the favourite they will eventually all lose their money. What is necessary is to look at what underlies form – like breeding, the habits of trainers, the nature of the track – then bet wisely against common expectations
In the Second World War a famous aircraft designer was asked what parts of fighter planes should be reinforced to make them less vulnerable to attack. He responded by looking at all the returning planes and suggested extra armour on all the areas of the plane that had not been hit. The air ministry was confused. This was a counter-intuitive solution – but it worked. Why? Because if a plane actually returned and landed safely with a hole somewhere in its fuselage then it was clear that damage where it was struck was not going to affect the integrity of the machine
So this is why your most error-prone employees may be your greatest asset. They may be making needless errors of judgment, but that is a training issue. We should also caution against reverting to that practice from ancient Greece of shooting the messenger of bad news. If employees follow conventional logic and cover up errors made by themselves and others or managers simply silence people because they ask uncomfortable questions then a company will never do anything to outsmart its competitors. Examine failures relative to their impact and consider why some seemingly negative actions do not have drastic outcomes. Like the employee who criticizes a company product on Facebook and yet sales for the product increase. Sometimes customers may buy something out of curiosity, find its benefits and tell others not to believe what they have read on the social media. As the saying goes, any publicity is good publicity
Probabilities underpin everything we do. They can be improved to produce desired outcomes more frequently, but errors can never be eliminated altogether. Ironically, however, it is errors that frequently lead to change – as Einstein once said “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”.