Don't Forget to Read the Small Print!

Don't Forget to Read the Small Print!©

by Peter Sanderson-Dykes

This time, I’ll be sharing a few thoughts about another way of saving time, even though it may, at first, require you to invest little more time than you first expected.

If you’ve ever I asked closely at a contract, you will probably have noticed there are often some extremely specific terms and conditions… and if you’re not careful, a guarantee or insurance policy is not valid when you thought it would be. In the past, this was called the small print, so named because, these terms were written in smaller letters and, as a result, people often ignored them … and regretted that later!

Indeed, if you’re not careful, there are potential traps of all kinds in many different places. For example, did you re-read that email you wrote quickly because you had to respect a fast approaching deadline? I have heard so many examples of people confirming the wrong price, quantity or delivery address for an important product or indeed the wrong date and time for a meeting or conference call. The most obvious one is confusing the European and American way of writing the date … does the month come before the day, or is it the other way round?

I’ve also been told that if a company has two offices in the same town, sometimes people have gone to the wrong one by mistake. And the story which amused me recently was about a Dutchman who was over the moon when he found a really cheap flight to Sydney. He expected great weather and a relaxing holiday sunbathing and surfing… but was slightly surprised when he arrived in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Furthermore, the temperature was rather different than he expected, and in his t-shirt he was little prepared for winds of 90 km/h and snow storms!

Dutch student flies to Sydney, Nova Scotia by accident - BBC News

A Dutch student learned the hard way that some deals are too good to be true when he landed in Sydney, Canada instead of Sydney, Australia. Milan Schipper told the CBC that he bought his flight ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39459471

Amazingly, this is not the first time that people have made the same mistake; perhaps the Canadian Sydney could develop an alternative form of tourism!

There are many other examples of misunderstandings of business mistakes, and I frequently quote the Laufenburg Bridge fiasco or the explosion of Mars Polar Orbiter to explain by checking the details is so important. Not doing so can lead to all sorts of embarrassing situations – losing time, energy and money perhaps, not to mention professional credibility and, if it’s not the first time, the risk of losing a client too!

Laufenburg Bridge Error...It's higher on one side!

Curiously, it’s not that difficult to avoid this sort of error.

Re-reading an email before sending it and checking you have the right price, date and so on might take you about 30 seconds… a lot less than sending another email to apologize for the mistake and reassure your correspondent.

Furthermore, if you are communicating in English and it is not your mother tongue, are you sure that your message is clear and coherent? A common error I hear is the confusion between “mustn’t” and “don’t have to”… bear in mind that you don’t have to come to the meeting is completely different from you mustn’t come to the meeting!

Sometimes, slowing down, rather than accelerating, can allow you to read your destination sooner. If you’re driving and there is an obstacle of some sort, it’s better to slow down until you’re gone past it and then accelerate. In the same way, re-reading and checking specific details means you don’t need to spend even more time correcting that embarrassing mistake.

In conclusion then, don’t just assume you have understood everything or that you are adequately clear and coherent… slow down, re-read, check and correct if necessary. And then you can relax!