Module 3 · Chapter 8

Own It

Every junior sends a wrong draft one day. What matters is the next hour: tell the partner first, send the client four plain lines, and keep the voice in your head in its place.

≈ 11 min read 8-question test

In this chapter

  • How to tell the partner and the client about a mistake
  • The four-line email: what happened, what is fixed, what stops it
  • Four techniques for the night before something that matters

8.1Owning a mistake in one paragraph

Every junior sends a wrong draft eventually, and the draft is rarely the expensive part. The expensive part is the hour after it, when the client wonders whether anyone has noticed.

Owning a mistake takes three steps. Tell the partner who owns the client, in one line. Fix the cause, so the error does not come back. Then tell the client, in four plain lines with one sorry.

Key point

A mistake is cheap. The silence after it is not. Tell the partner in one line before you tell the client in four.

Also in this chapter

  1. The apology that leaves the reader out
  2. Tell the partner first, in one line
  3. The four-line email
  4. Creator, not victim
  5. The thought record: facts before feelings
  6. The reframe, the friend test and one line of fact
  7. Your job

Preview

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