The Case: How to Prevent Second-Order Errors?
Payt is a software service that is generically applicable for all its users. You cannot buy it, only use it. You pay a monthly fee for this. If someone makes a mistake in the software, often everyone suffers from it. And if someone creates something beautiful, all users can benefit from it.
The Tip of the Iceberg
Employees have certain tasks and perform them. This is how it works at all levels and in every company. Managers who assign tasks to their employees monitor their execution. In turn, they show their bosses, through impressive reports, that they are ‘in control’ and that everyone is working hard. Everything that happens in this picture is based on business plans or arises from the minds of a company’s leadership. In normal healthy companies, this accounts for 95% of the work. It is visible, measurable, and bonuses are based on it. It is nice that every employee knows what to expect. You do your job well.
The Bottom of the Iceberg
By the bottom of the iceberg, I mean a company’s profit, say three years ahead. It is not determined by what happens at the top of the iceberg. The standard tasks that everyone is busy with all day. No, it is determined by people who, due to their work, come up with something that others often could not have imagined. Certainly not their bosses. They can therefore never be blamed for not having thought of it. I call this ‘second-order errors’ (a wrong name, so if you have suggestions, very welcome).
I suspect that every company harbors such errors. Specifically: In your company, someone is walking around with a special idea to do something differently. How do you unlock this potential? Without self-confidence in one’s own abilities, no one comes up with anything new, in my experience. And without imagination, certainly not. These are, of course, difficult to impossible qualities for an employer to improve. Periodically expressing the desire to prevent ‘second-order errors’ is very feasible. And in combination with a public reward for an unexpected improvement from an unexpected corner, it is a good incentive to prevent more ‘second-order errors’. Additionally, having a clear vision of what the company stands for and what it aims to achieve helps. Let the gears turn, and the returns will be significant.
An Example in Practice at Payt
In the dental care industry, they work with software in which the treatment of their patients is registered. Payt automates the invoicing and collection of invoices. We once connected two dentists who do their own invoicing. A curious colleague decided to investigate what the process actually looks like for most other dentists. Most dentists do not make invoices themselves but send treatment files to a factoring company, which, for a hefty fee, organizes the collection from health insurers and collects the patient’s co-payment. From my colleague’s automation perspective, this could be improved, and he decided to outline the entire process and bring it up for discussion. A huge investment followed, many dentists followed, and Payt developed software that would otherwise never have been conceived. No one else had ever stood up to ask: why aren’t those other 7,000 dentists in the Netherlands customers? Well, in hindsight, it is always easy and logical.
Suppose all employees come up with an improvement every year that is not in their job description, then I am convinced that ideas will emerge that will change the company’s course in a profitable direction.
Thank you for reading!
