Trust Your Intuition – Avoid Error

Posted March 7th, 2006

When you suspect you or someone is about to make an error, question what is happening. Do not let the moment pass. Trust your intuition.

After a recent eye exam, the optician was writing the prescription onto the form for making the lenses. My previous eye exam had been done by an opthamologist, and this one was done by an optometrist. The optician remarked that the prescriptions are written differently, depending on which type of eye doctor writes them. The optician appeared to be having trouble with the way the new prescription was written when comparing it to the previous prescription. The optician remarked that my eyes must have changed a lot, because the prescription was a lot different. I said the optometrist had only changed the prescription slightly.

At that moment, my intuition told me that the optician was likely to make a mistake. I did not say anything, even though I knew this was an error-likely situation.

I picked up my new glasses a few days later, and recognized that they were quite different from my old glasses. I suspected something was wrong, but decided that a time of adjustment was necessary. After about three weeks of “adjusting” and seeing blurry images and finally almost falling down going downhill on a path, I started wearing my old glasses.

I went back to the optician and told them that I thought something was wrong with the new glasses. At first, just like people with whom I work, they said that I probably just needed to adjust to them or that the glasses’ frame needed adjustment.

After further examination of the paperwork and the glasses, the optician determined that the prescription in the glasses was wrong, because the prescription was written incorrectly on the form. The lenses had to be remade.

How many times have my instincts sent me messages to pay attention and act to prevent something from happening? Why do I ignore these signals, weak as they may be? In this case, I yielded to the “authority” of the optician.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 7th, 2006 at 11:49 am and is filed under Operational Excellence.