Front cover image for Do it right the first time : a short guide to learning from your most memorable errors, mistakes, and blunders

Do it right the first time : a short guide to learning from your most memorable errors, mistakes, and blunders

Your mistakes need not be a fact of life. We can all learn to make fewer of them. In Do It Right the First Time, world renowned personal improvement guru Gerard Nierenberg shows us just how we can reduce the number of errors we make-both in and out of life and the workplace. Nierenberg's Error Awareness System teaches us how to increase our sensitivity and cut down on the errors we make-and guard against those made by others that affect us. He shows us how to identify the causes of our errors, how to deal with them-and most importantly-how to prevent them from recurring. Packed with real-life examples, discussion questions, checklists, and helpful exercises, Do It Right the First Time covers: a- Ways to reduce errors in critical thinking and judgment; b- Improving memory; c- Recognizing patterns in error; d- How managers and supervisors can reduce errors-awareness and action, effective feedback, quality control, with no shame, no blame; e- Concentration and accuracy-focusing on the job at hand; f- Clerical errors and what they cost-understanding transportation, omission, insertion, repetition, substitution; and g- How to turn mistakes into benefits
Print Book, English, ©1996
Wiley, New York, ©1996
x, 310 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
9780471148890, 047114889X
34244068
The errors of our ways
No shame, no blame
Reaping the rewards of trial and error
The error-awareness system
The types of errors we make
Errors in transcription
Mistakes in meaning
Relying too heavily on computers can be an error
The high cost of errors
The snowball effect
What it costs when we don't learn from our mistakes: a critical look at airline accidents
What it costs when we don't protect ourselves from others' errors: a critical look at medicine
The causes of our errors
Why simple tasks are so hard to do right
How to cut down on reading errors
Concentration: focusing on the job at hand
Classifying the causes of error
A checklist to increase your error awareness
Strategies to reduce your errors
Improving your memory
Recognizing patterns in errors
Managing and supervising to reduce errors
How accuracy impacts critical thinking and judgment
No shame, no blame, revisited