What is Your Plan When You Mess Up? – You will Probably Need One at Some Point

Plan
noun

• a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something
• an intention or decision about what one is going to do.”I have no plans to retire”
• blueprint

Plan
verb
decide on and arrange in advance

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You know the accepted wisdom. Like: “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

And, you know that strategic planning is strategic planning – planning your strategy. (Which then has to be followed by execution).

And, you know that you actually have to have a lot of “plans.”

Like…You have to plan your next quarter. You have to plan your budget outlays.

So much to plan!…

But, here is a specific planning session you need to have. You need to be ready with this plan in advance of needing it. And, if you never need it, good for you. But there is a pretty good chance you will need it.

Here it is.

What is your plan when you mess up?

Define “mess up” any way you want to. You make a big mistake. You make a wrong call. You fail to deliver on a promise to a customer.

The list of ways to mess up is pretty long. But, if you do mess up, (and, you probably will at some point. Notice I did not write “What is your plan if you mess up?”  I wrote “when“). It’s best to have that plan in place before you need it. If you wait until you mess up to start planning what to do, you will likely be too late to develop a good plan.

Whatever you include in your plan, it needs to include these elements –

“I messed up — We messed up
And I apologize — we apologize.
And here’s how we’re going to make it right.”

So… what is your plan when you mess up?