YET ANOTHER MIX UP

The 2015 Dance World Cup has just finished. I had no idea that such an event existed, even less that it was taking place right now. From a sporting point of view, my attention has been focusing on Wimbledon and the build up to this year’s Ashes tournament.

As a result, I listened vaguely to this morning’s BBC radio 4 news when they spoke about the event where, apparently, the British team did very well – so congratulations to them! The next tournament will apparently take place on Jersey, and so the island’s sports Minister, Constable Steve Pallet, was supposed to be present during the closing ceremony to receive a flag from the current hosts, Bucharest.

But, oh dear, Constable Pallet was not there. Due to an incredible and almost unbelievable mix-up, he had travelled by mistake… to Budapest, some 800 km away in neighbouring Hungary!

Constable Pallet apologised profusely during the radio interview. Some £1000 of tax payers’ money had been wasted as a result of this mistake while his credibility has taken a bit of a bashing too.

Jersey minister travels to wrong country for dance event - BBC News

Jersey minister travels to wrong country for dance event - BBC News

Jersey's sports minister missed the handover of the Dance World Cup to the island when he flew to Budapest, Hungary, instead of Bucharest, Romania. Jersey is hosting the 2016 competition and ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-jersey-33387201

So what went wrong? Was it a geographical error? Was it down to a spelling mistake?

A spokesperson for the Education, Sport and Culture department referred to “human error” and Constable Pallet said the people in this department should have been more careful.

But hold on a minute… shouldn’t Constable Pallet have checked for himself? It’s no good blaming other people if he isn’t able to take responsibility for his own actions. Rather than passing the buck, he needs to hold on to it.

As U.S. President Harry S. Truman used to say, “the buck stops here”.

So what can we learn from this little story?

Firstly, as always, Assume Nothing – Verify Everything. Taking a few minutes to check details is more efficient than taking a few hours to apologise and even longer to rebuild lost confidence.

Secondly, rather than blame others if something goes wrong, take full responsibility for it. We all make mistakes, so why not try to learn from them.

Indeed, as Samuel Beckett said “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better”.

Great advice worth following…

steve pallet