Hazardous Runways

I’m all about the silver lining.  My cup isn’t half full; it runneth over.  I keep my shades handy because I can always find the bright side.  And here it is: this week, I’m keeping company with supermodels!  That’s a stretch, and not just because I’m 5’2″.  Why supermodels?  Well, it’s because sometimes they fall down in public too.

And this week I took a header for all the world to see.  It’s been about a year since I was last responsible for a high-profile typo.  I typed hickey pucks when I meant hockey pucks in an article about silent auction items (Yes, we are still looking for donations, see article below). The bright side that time was that I misspelled hockey, not pucks.  Well, I’ve done it again.

This time, on the cover of Thrive!, our online magazine that was sent to you yesterday, there’s a typo.  Country is misspelled.  There are a couple of other typos too.  And I got emails from a lot of you about it.  I appreciate the heads up, and I also have an answer for those of you who couldn’t believe I let that happen.

The answer is: people make mistakes.  This time it was two people – me and the awesome designer with whom I’ve worked with for nearly 20 years.  You see, he rekeyed some text for me in a few spots. Time was tight, and he was trying to help out.  But there’s a reason that designers aren’t editors.  This is it.

So, I apologize for the errors.  I’m as mortified as the runway models in that crash and burn video clip (FYI, even Naomi Campbell hits the deck). But there’s a bright side here too.  When he misspelled Country, at least he didn’t leave out the “o”.  That would have been way worse! And, since I’ve been hanging out with you BCP folks for 20-some years now, I’ve also identified lessons to be learned:

Don’t let your designer type.  Or better said: even if it’s going to save you time, cutting corners, is cutting corners. Make sure that people are assigned to the tasks that best suit them.  Imagine if this had been a crisis communication, and he typo-ed an address or some other piece of critical information. Yikes!

It’s more complicated than you think.  Whatever “it” is, that’s true.  We all type.  How hard can it be, right?  Well, we all walk too.  But I wouldn’t want to walk in any of those models’ shoes (or the crazy get-ups).  My parents are teachers, and they used to remark that because people have been to school, they feel that they can critique teachers.  I think there’s some truth to that, and I’ve always tried to put myself in other people’s shoes (just not those towering platforms!) to understand the intricacies and challenges of their jobs before I ask something of them that, to me, seems easy.

I’ll work on eliminating the typos, after I crawl out from under this rock.  And here’s another bit of silver lining for you: it’s Friday!

Enjoy your weekend!