I was in a cross-departmental meeting where the subject turned to a production problem that was causing a headache. As we left, a purchasing colleague complained about how many ‘issues’ R&D ‘designed in’. That no one in R&D was good at their jobs. All we did was create problems for the rest of the company.
At that moment a maxim was born. I said “no one comes to work to do a bad job”.
That stopped them in their tracks, because it reminded them that R&D weren’t the ‘source of problems’, they were actual people that they worked with every day.
Are bad decisions made? Of course! R&D generally consists of a group of people doing things that they have never done before. For every one bad decision there are hundreds, if not thousands of decisions made that were right – that didn’t lead to issues. Most conflict at work isn’t incompetence – it’s misaligned priorities.
The maxim has served me well over the years. Admittedly, sometimes I have said it to myself whilst gently banging my head against the desk, but it makes me remember that sometimes the problem is that they are doing a good job based on targets that I don’t have, and in conditions that I don’t understand.
Are there some people who DO come into work to do a bad job? Sure! BUT they are the minority, and giving people the benefit of the doubt creates a culture where mistakes aren’t blamed on the individual and people can be honest about them.
So next time you are frustrated with someone at work, remind yourself that no one comes to work to do a bad job – it’s a great way to make work human again.