The other week I made a mistake...

I spend a very great deal of time making mistakes. They range from the:

• inconsequential typo, abetted by my profound inability to get any better at typing
• failure to express myself or findings clearly – but I normally get another go at that
• horribly inefficient ways to analyse data or present findings – but the victim there is me and my time
• wrong research method or design – bigger issue, but normally only identified in hindsight, and besides, if you ask smart (enough) questions in smart (enough) ways, you’ll get answers

Clients and potential clients: I promise, I get most of what I do right. Being a very small business means there is more opportunity – and more imperative – to learn from mistakes. I also think that a small business maybe has more of an opportunity for a little more humility. A little of that gets a great deal of goodwill. So, I reflect on what I’ve done, how I solved issues and how I can do things better.

Which is what makes my mistake so maddening. It’s something I observe all the time and resolved never to do myself.

When people want a research need filled, they often come to me with a pre-ordained method, or they try to predict what’s discoverable, or where,  or they simply try to make their request more technical.

Please don’t. Just tell me in Plain English what you want to find out, and we can work it out from there. At the heart of all my research is a simple Who/What/Why/Where/When question.

That’s what I didn’t do. I assumed I knew what was available and looked for that. I had a little knowledge … and the old adage was proven. If I’d asked the person with the full knowledge a simple Plain English question, I’d have got what I needed first time.

The consequence? This time, no harm done. I owned up, I apologised, I did the work again, and I got it back within the original timescale. 

And that’s the thing for small business; all you have is your reputation. One bad piece of work can easily cancel out the twenty good before it. You’re not as enmeshed with or bound to your clients as bigger business.

So what have I learnt? To keep looking for where I could be going wrong. 

Hard? Yes – I’m always right, right? Essential? Indubitably – I’m not always right, am I?