Stop Fixing Symptoms

Recurring errors usually point to a weakness in the system around the person.

It is easy for this sort of thing to become normal. People work around it, new starters copy the workaround and before long nobody really questions why the process works that way.

Look at what is actually happening

When the same problem returns, work backwards. Ask what allowed it, why the process did not detect it and what condition made the mistake likely.

The useful question is not whether somebody can work harder or remember more. It is whether the process is making the work unnecessarily difficult.

Design the better version

Replace reminders to be more careful with better forms, validation, clearer ownership, simpler data flows or automated prompts. Good processes anticipate ordinary human mistakes.

That is the point of RE:PROCESS: make the work visible, challenge the bits that no longer make sense and build a simpler way of getting the outcome you actually need.