Last week I failed to post my Monday morning weekly post!  Well I was planning to bank this post for later but it seems this is a great time to lay this out... A few years ago I was working as an Automotive  Technician (mechanic) at the local Toyota Dealership.  I came in one Monday morning to find a menacing note instructing me to see the Shop Manager.  I quickly found out that the last car I had serviced on Friday had been towed back in because a wheel fell off!  I'm sure you can all guess how bad that is to a customer, so in order to right my wrong and save my job I took these 4 steps: 1) I Identified the cause of the problem: Lug nuts don't just come loose on their own.  I specifically remembered torquing these wheels so when the Shop Manager accused me of not torquing them I was more than a little perturbed.  I took my torque wrench to the wheel and then borrowed a buddies torque wrench and took it to the same wheel.  I quickly found out that my torque wrench had bitten the dust and wasn't functioning properly. 2) I Solved the problem: I torqued the wheels on the car using the borrowed torque wrench then I informed my Service Writer that I needed to check the torque on the wheels of every car I had worked on for the last 3 days. Although this was a big undertaking and a big annoyance to some customers, most were pleased that we were taking every precaution once they had heard the reason. 3) I Made sure it wouldn't happen again: I ordered a replacement torque wrench with a lifetime warranty and made arrangements to use the borrowed wrench until mine showed up.  We also chose to partner up with another mechanic and each time we would double check one lug nut with the other mechanic's wrench so that we would have an "early warning" when it came to defective tools, this made a big impression on the customers (and our boss!) 4) I Communicated the problem, solution and steps we had taken to everyone involved: This meant the customers, Service Writers, Shop Manager, everybody!  My screw up here lead to me developing this process and implementing new safety measures at work.  Everyone was suitably impressed and the owner of the company, who was known as a bit of a quiet guy, even stopped by to thank me for taking care of the problem promptly and thoroughly. I hope you can all learn a little bit from my screw-ups.  I always try to learn something so that it feels much less like a screw-up and more like a learning experience. Just remember, be Prompt, Thorough and Communicate honestly. P.S. Sorry I screwed up and didn't post last week!  I've scheduled a post for next week and set up my Google calendar to notify me twice a week so that I won't forget again!  Thanks for your understanding :D