Fix your systems before they embarrass you

One of the most hilarious and poetically perfect videos on the internet is a clip of 90’s rockers Rage Against The Machine playing live on the BBC.  The clip focus on the ending of their song “Killing In The Name,” which features frontman Zach DeLaRocha sing-screaming “F*** you I won’t do what you tell me” seventeen times on the studio recording.

During this live performance DeLaRocha omits the not-ready-for-prime-time word the first eight times through, but as the music climaxes he raises his middle finger to the camera and lets the F-bomb fly on repeat.

Moments later the feed is interrupted by a commentator saying, “Sorry…that suddenly turned into something we were not expecting. Well we were expecting it, and asked them not to do it, and they did it anyway.”

So, the BBC invited a band who might have been best known for their “F*** you I won’t do what you tell me” attitude…and were somehow caught off guard that they, in fact, did not do what they were told.

Here’s the thing: while you are shaking your head at how obvious this outcome seems, you likely have systems and processes in your business that you KNOW are broken (or at least iffy) but will leave you speechless when they fail at exactly the wrong moment.

You will likely never perfect every system in your business, that’s not the point, but you should never be surprised when something works the way you built it.

I’m guessing that you just thought of a system or a process that needs some work. Take a moment to capture it and identify what you need to do to shore it up.

(Need some help? Let’s jump on a discovery call to see how I can help you fix those busted systems before they betray you.)