When should a business error trigger an operational change? (diagnostic error logs)

So, you F’d up. Or someone on your team did.

What’s your next step, the one that helps you figure out if this should trigger an operational change?

In other words, what helps you decide whether it’s worth spending the time, money, and effort on:

• policy and procedure discussions/revisions
• 1-on-1 interventions (e.g., mentoring/coaching, formal warnings, refresher training)

Or whether you should just let the error fade into the ether?

It could be as simple as an error log you store in a spreadsheet. Provided it has this one key column.

What is an Error Log?

An error log is the place where you log mistakes.

Most error logs are designed for recordkeeping:

• When did this happen?
• When did we realize the problem?
• Who made the mistake?
• Why did this happen?
• Who found & fixed it?
• What was the fix?

This approach can be sufficient for:

• Compliance-related records
• Discussions on preventive measures – how you’ll prevent this error in the future – as well as an analysis of corrective measures – those things you did to repair / recover from the error
• 1-on-1 interventions with the person who made the error
• Kudos for the folks who find & fix

But this data doesn’t help you focus your efforts, because there’s nothing here that really helps you diagnose the errors. They’re all handled in a one-off kind of way. Or, at least, as if they’re all equal.

What a diagnostic error log does instead

A diagnostic error log adds a single column to the standard error log: impact/severity of the error to the business. Here’s how the column works.

The impact/severity column stores one of three values:

• “Severe” or “High” impact errors are the ones that cost you (e.g., a refund, an extra cost you incurred to fix it and maintain good client relations, a copyright violation that shuts down part of your business)
• “Low” impact errors don’t really require cleanup (beyond the immediate fix), don’t risk your client relationships when they happen, etc.
• Everything else falls in between – “Medium”

This simple change helps you weight the data in terms of what’s important to address.

• A simple count can be an indicator that you have something that’s quietly eating away at your business: Those infrequent, “Low” impact things? Embarrassing maybe, but maybe not worth paying more attention to. Log it and let it go. The more frequent they become, the more they warrant your attention – even if they are “Low” impact.
• A single “Severe” or “High” impact error could be a death knell: These are definitely worth a closer look. Is it time to change how you operate? Are there things you can do to prevent this type of thing from happening again? Something needs to change.

Of course, how exactly you respond to the information you get from your error logs depends on the specifics of your business.

(One caveat: not everything warrants an error log entry. Don’t make this more burdensome and nitpicky than it needs to be. Here’s a rule of thumb: If it’s not something you even feel compelled to fix, then it probably doesn’t need an entry.)

Points to Ponder

If you don’t already have an error log: It might be worth starting a log – even if you’re a solopreneur. Simply open a spreadsheet, label the columns with the guiding questions + the impact/severity column, and make entries when noteworthy errors occur.

If you already have an impact/severity column in your existing log: Are there any insights you’ve gained from adding the impact/severity column and running the numbers? How has it helped you focus your efforts?

If your logs don’t have an impact/severity column: How much time and effort have you spent treating every error the same? Have you been nitpicking or giving undue attention to “Low” impact and infrequent things – perhaps at the expense of things that needed your attention more?

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Blou Designs helps decision makers get unstuck from ambiguity, competing priorities, and operational burden by helping them design and implement incremental infrastructure improvements – starting as small as this diagnostic error log with a severity column. Small change, big impact. If you’d like help identifying, thinking through, or building out improvements just like this one, schedule a no-obligation Discovery (via Zoom) so we can talk things through.