Tylenol has recalled an undisclosed number of containers of Tylenol, Motrin and other over-the-counter drugs earlier this month after consumers complained of feeling sick from an "unusual" odor.
Toyota has suspended U.S. sales of eight models, which were recalled to fix accelerator pedals that might stick. This recall will impact over 4 million cars in service. Toyota is also stopping production on 8 models until this problem can be fixed.
These recalls will impact the trust of millions of customers, negatively impact employees (how would you like to be a car salesperson for Toyota right now?) and eroding corporate reputation that will takes years to regain.
Mistakes happen and people foul up in business; they always have and always will. The big differences between mistakes today over years past are twofold.
First of all, the speed of business today is so much faster than it used to be. If you have a car accident at 5 mph there is little or no damage and the lesson can be learned rather cheaply. As opposed to driving 200 mph at Talladega speedway and a car accident is spectacular and the damage is extensive.
This dramatic increase in speed requires people to be highly trained professionals in order to ensure everything is done with precision. However, most companies are cutting training budgets and getting people on the job as fast as possible instead of when they are fully qualified. In some cases companies are leaving jobs unfilled and asking other employees to take on the extra work load. This is sure to create more mistakes.
Speed increases the stress on everything. Whether we are talking conveyor belt tolerances or human reaction time, or performing quality audits; when time is the critical factor expertise becomes much more critical and tolerances become tighter.
The second reason is the way news is spread today. News outlets no longer deliver just the facts of the news, they add commentary, look for blame, and add unconfirmed unnamed sources for additional information. Can you say dousing a camp fire with gasoline?
Want to keep your mistakes in-house?
- Evaluate your training process to ensure you are getting a productive employee once they have finished.
- Review the power of your quality control. Do they have the right to shut down the process when something doesn’t meet standards? If not, why not?
- Review your corporate culture to see if the real way of doing things in your workplace is shoving things out the door to met a quota, or in making sure what goes out the door is customer ready.
Once in-house mistakes make it beyond your four walls, the blame game begins, defensive posture is created and the mistake takes on a life of its own. Do what is necessary to contain mistakes while they can be managed before they are released to do great damage to your organization’s reputation. Cutting corners is often a first step to cutting your own throat.
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