When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.
~Jocko Willink
I hung my head today while cursing quietly under my breath. I knew I had fucked up.
Oh SHIT!
Not intentionally. Not out of stupidity. Not out of malice. Out of pure lack of attention.
And lack of coffee. Yes, I partly blame the lack of coffee. But that is still no excuse.
Sometimes when you think a project is finished - you're wrong. This particular project which I thought I had wrapped up four days ago was returned back to me for more changes. This I didn't mind. It was entirely within the scope of the project and while it delayed the process a little bit, it wasn't a train smash.
A flurry of mails arrived in my inbox early this morning from the client and what I originally thought would be a quick fix, turned into an absolute nightmare. I had overlooked a key fundamental and in the handover process, it screwed up another part of the project workflow which had been put in play earlier. This caused a lot of consternation and a high level of tension between my manager and I. Such a simple thing to overlook, such a tremendous amount of damage it did.
The worst part was that I had essentially been locked out of the project workflow as it had now been handed over to the next team. There wasn't much I could do to rectify it, which left me feeling helpless and useless. I admitted the mistake, offered all the help I could in getting additional support and sincerely apologized. After much swearing at myself, I went in to debrief mode and problem solving.
Sure, it wasn't a life or death situation but on a professional level, it was a fuck up of note. After half an hour I had a feasible solution that I presented. I'm still waiting for feedback. This is going in my checklist of things to double triple check before handover from now on.
It's going to be a long day, but writing about it somehow makes it seem a bit more organised in my head. A lot less chaotic. I'm not washing my hands of it, I'm taking full ownership (own-yer-shit) and it will be rectified, but that won't allow me to feel less responsibility or take less accountability.
~ Pablo Picasso