Broken-Be Accountable For Your Mistakes.

Are you accountable for mistakes you made when trying to help a customer.

Years ago while implementing a new solution, I found myself in a big mess where I almost got myself fired!.

The customer gave us the weekend to deploy 600 digital stations. The installation consisted of Call Center Agents, Operators, and many other departments in a six floor building. Calls were affected when we added three T1 circuits. Instead, calls were ringing at the Core Site. VDNs, Vectors, Tenant Partition and ARS tables were some of the many things I oversaw during the data gathering stages.

Here are some techniques to help you cope with something similar=

• 1.- Analyze the situation
• 2.- Recognize mistakes – Be true to yourself
• 3.- Develop an effective plan
• 4.- Do whatever it takes

1.- Analyze the situation

Test plan. Once the T1s were cut and ready, my next step should have been testing not only DIDs, inbound and outbound calls, but simulate how the system should have responded to a regular day of operations. By testing any variables and documenting the results will give you a better picture on how to tackle each item.

2.- Recognize mistakes – Be true to yourself

This is one of the hardest parts for me. Being able to recognize that I am spending way too much time on something that might be way over my head, and seek for help. Yes ,it is okay not to know it all.

3.- Develop an effective plan

Once you come to senses and recognize that you won’t be able to act alone on this. It is time to develop a plan that will guide you, and dig yourself out of the hole. Follow these steps=

a.- Cancel and reschedule

The perfect scenario is to re-schedule the cut.

b.- Call your support person or supervisor and retool

This will help you gather the right resources or ideas. Then hire skilled technicians to help through the implantation.

c.- Do a walkthrough of the site

Here you will look at every aspect of the implementation. See how everything is progressing. I suggest you do this three hours into the implementation cycle. Look at how everything is coming together.

d.- Use the right tools

You need a software system or app to help you identify the progress been made so far. From running SAT commands in ASA such as list registered, list stations and list multimedia ip-unregistered; will give you a logical idea how much work you got in front of you. Again the purpose here to find ways to paint a picture of your progress.

e.- Communicate with your customer

With your project plan in hand. Communicate to your customer how things are moving. Also ask for their input.

4.- Do whatever it takes

Now with all gears running at full speed, it is your responsibility to stick to your plan and finish it. If you have to make new traveling arrangements so be it. You might need to reschedule some other aspects of the implementation, that’s fine, as long as your plan is moving accordingly.

How about you?. Have you experience anything similar? if so, I want to hear from you in the comment section below.