Fooling Yourself

Very often the solution to all administrative ills is to have somebody carry out “Quality Control” on everything that is sent out.  That way you can be absolutely sure that it is all correct, with no chance of error.  Some departments have an army of Quality Controllers who don’t release anything unless it has been checked first.

Those with really, really big problems actually Quality Control the Quality Control.  Presumably the first Quality Controllers are not to be trusted.

There are two problems with QC.

The first is that it is an expensive way to fix problems.  Anything that is found has to be reworked, so a job that should have taken one person takes three: somebody to do the job, somebody to check it and somebody to do it again.

Secondly it just doesn’t work as a way of spotting errors.  The brain sees what it wants to see not what is there.  The video below explains why.

A far better solution is to ask your QC’s to understand the reasons for the errors and fix the root causes so they can’t happen again.  As a way forward it is cheaper, more effective and frankly more rewarding than working as a QC.

Image by Phil Shirley