We all make mistakes, don't we? I'm keen to understand if there are particularly dumb things that we are prone to doing, or observing. Are there mistakes which keep getting repeated? I think so, and I'm keen to learn more from this group. I'd be grateful for your contributions to the discussion. I'm asking the same question on the stop doing dumb things to customers blog, and I will share any feedback that's posted there too. To get you started here's a dumb thing I did a few years back.
I was asked to create a business to business sales experiment for Dixons in Central London. As part of this I needed to recruit three people to form a sales team plus an administrator. I found an extremely capable administrator and two guys who I thought would make great sales people. I was very comfortable with these three appointments. I couldn't decide who would fill the fourth seat on this team. I came under some pressure to make a decision and with the worry that if I didn't fill the post it may get withdrawn, I chose the best of the rest.
Big mistake. This guy wasn't as good as the others, nowhere near. I won't bore you with the details but I sacked him a few weeks later. I felt terrible because I had tried to fit a square peg into a round hole. It was my fault for recruiting him in the first place.
The rest of the team were a big success. We worked and sold very well together. With hindsight I believe an empty seat would have been preferable to all of us. Including (maybe even especially), the guy I had to let go.
That was a pretty dumb thing, and I've learned to work with some great empty seats since then.
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