Own a Mistake You Made
Added 2026-10-31
Admit it first, then impact and remedy, then prevention — no excuses.
I made a mistake at work and must explain it. I will give what happened, impact, what I have fixed and how I will prevent it. Write a note: 1) first sentence says plainly that I made a mistake, no preamble; 2) state the impact including who is affected; 3) remedy and timing; 4) one concrete prevention measure; 5) under 200 words, no vague words like "oversight" or "accidentally".
Site original
Chinese original
How to use
认错越快，信任损失越小。
Try tweaking it
- Ask for three columns: conclusion, owner, deadline — ready to paste into a table.
- Let it organise only your notes; do not add decisions that were never made.
What you should get
- Task list with owner, deadline and blocker
- Escalations that need a decision, listed separately
Common mistakes
- Feeding raw notes and letting it fill in decisions that were never made.
- Getting owners without deadlines, so no task can be created.
How to check the output
- Every item has an owner and a date — ready to become a task.
- It does not record decisions that were never made.
Where it works
- Good for: turning verbal discussion into owner, deadline and blocker.
- Watch out: let it organise only the notes you supply — never let it infer decisions that were not made.