TL;DR
- Mistakes aren’t failures; they’re stories, lessons, and reminders of our glorious imperfection.
- From forgotten luggage in Frankfurt, sugar-free pies, puppy panic, and wrong turns, human error shows up everywhere.
- It’s not just about individuals; it’s about systems, stress, unclear processes, and overwhelm that make mistakes inevitable.
- In the PESO Model©, human error appears as:
- Development: treating integration like a checklist instead of a recipe.
- Execution: wrong buttons, missed posts, or automation mishaps.
- Measurement: chasing vanity metrics instead of business outcomes.
- Integration: missed amplification and siloed efforts.
- The fix? Humor, supportive colleagues, checklists, cross-functional reviews, and AI tools as safety nets.
- Human error is part of being human. Progress comes from embracing mistakes, learning, and building better systems.
Human Error: The Stories We Tell…After a Glass of Wine
I’ve always believed mistakes make the best stories.
Not the polished, “look at me, I’m flawless” kind of stories, but the ones where you’re standing in a German train station crying at a stranger because you forgot your luggage.
The ones where your pumpkin pie tastes like savory soup because you forgot the sugar.
The ones where your puppy nearly sends you into a panic spiral because you’re juggling too many things at once.
Human error. It sounds awful, right?
Like something you’d find in a risk management manual or a compliance training module. (Compliance Karen….Just STOP!!!)
It’s the messy, funny, frustrating, and sometimes terrifying stuff of everyday life.
The moments your brain short-circuits under stress.
When you’re so confident, you skip the obvious step.
Or when you’re simply too tired to notice the glaring sign in front of you.
And here’s the kicker: human error isn’t just about individuals.
It’s about systems, environments, processes, and the way we design our work and lives.
Sometimes the mistake is ours, but often it’s the setup that makes the mistake inevitable.
Let’s talk about it, not as a checklist of “times when human error occurs,” but as a collection of stories, lessons, and reminders that we’re all gloriously imperfect.
The Frankfurt Train Station Fiasco
Let’s start with one of my personal favorites: the Frankfurt train station debacle.
Picture this: I’m traveling alone for work. It was a long day of flying. Indianapolis, Chicago, Frankfurt.
I’ve just landed in Germany. I’m feeling very international, very capable, very “I’ve got this.”
Now I have to catch a train, the first of three to reach my final destination.
Every sign is in German. My train ticket is in German. Spoiler alert: I don’t read or speak German.
But I’m strolling through the airport like I’ve done this a million times. (Can’t look like I’ve never done this before.)
I find my way to the train platform, proud as can be.
I sit down, pat myself on the back, and then it hits me: I left my luggage on the carousel.
CRAP!!!! My luggage.
The one thing you’re supposed to grab before leaving the airport.
In my defense, all other times I had flown into Frankfurt, it was for a connecting flight – not to catch a train.
Cue panic.
Cue me trying to explain to a very large, very intimidating man in the “lost luggage” room that I need my bags.
He doesn’t speak English. I don’t speak German.
My stress level is somewhere between “I might miss my train” and “I might never see my clothes again.”
So, I did what every seasoned traveler does. I cried.
The tears worked; he let me in.
I grabbed my bags, sprinted back to the platform with about ten minutes to spare.
Victory, right? Wrong.
An announcement blares overhead, in German, of course.
Suddenly, everyone is running towards the up escalator.
I freeze. What’s happening? Is there a fire? Why is everyone running?
It must have been my panicked look, or maybe I just looked helpless.
But a kind stranger looks at my ticket, grabs my arm, and pulls me along. Being totally confused, I followed him.
After all, what else could go wrong?
Turns out the train changed tracks. The new track was three over.
RUN!!!! German trains wait for no one. (IYKYK).
Thanks to a total stranger, I made it.
But let’s be honest: my human error triggers were firing on all cylinders: stress, unclear procedures, distractions, and sheer overwhelm.
Lesson learned?
Sometimes survival depends on strangers who take pity on you. And sometimes human error is just part of the travel package.
The Puppy Panic
Then there’s the story of my friend (who shall remain unnamed, except her name is Gini Dietrich 🙂).
As we all know, she has a new puppy, Ellie.
Adorable! Mischievous!
The kind of creature you call a “little terrorist” with equal parts affection and exhaustion.
One day, the puppy had to get her shots. A few hours later, she had an allergic reaction.
Gini, between meetings, podcasts, and the general chaos of life, called the vet.
They gave her instructions, only to call back to give her different ones.
She tried them. They didn’t work.
She called again. More instructions. Still not working.
Finally, she said, “Can I just bring her in and you take care of it?”
A bit of Benadryl later, Ellie was fine.
But here’s the thing: Gini was perfectly capable of giving Ellie Benadryl herself.
She’s smart, competent, resourceful! (Proven every single day!)
However, in that moment, the emotional stress, the workload, and the unclear directions were overwhelming.
Human error wasn’t about ability; in the moment, it was about capacity.
And isn’t that the truth?
Sometimes we know exactly what to do, but the weight of everything else makes us freeze.
Kitchen Catastrophes
Ah, the kitchen. My personal laboratory of human error.
Cooking, for me, has always been a metaphor for human error.
You think you’re following the recipe, but you miss a step. My infamous “sugar-free” pumpkin pie
You assume you know what “a pinch” means, but your pinch is apparently the size of a fist.
You get distracted, and suddenly your cookies are ruined. The chocolate chip cookies, where I doubled everything except the flour. YUCK!
But here’s the beauty: every mistake becomes a story.
Every disaster becomes a lesson.
And sometimes, the laughter is worth more than the cookies.
Detours
Human error doesn’t just happen in kitchens or train stations. It happens on the road, too.
Just the other day, I was driving home from the grocery store. The road was under construction. I wasn’t paying attention.
Before I realized it, I was on the wrong road.
It wasn’t catastrophic.
I didn’t end up in another state. That’s a story for another time…..
But it was a reminder that distraction, construction, and familiarity can combine into a perfect storm of “oops.”
And isn’t that the essence of human error?
It’s not always dramatic. Sometimes it’s just a wrong turn
Human Error in the PESO Model©
Human error isn’t just about travel, puppies, pies, or detours; it’s also about work.
Scheduling meetings, creating presentations, creating or approving tactics, or building fully integrated PESO Model campaigns.
The PESO Model is brilliant. It’s integrated. It’s powerful. It’s a complete operating system. But it’s also vulnerable to human error at every stage.
Human error in PESO isn’t about incompetence.
It’s often about silos, assumptions, and systems that make mistakes inevitable.
Here’s how everyday blunders mirror the way we might stumble at work and how we can learn to avoid them.
The Checklist Trap (Development Phase)
When I first landed in Frankfurt, I strutted through the airport like I had it all figured out.
Train Ticket? Check. Platform? Check. Confidence? Double check.
But I forgot the most obvious thing: my luggage.
That moment of “I’ve got this” followed by “oh crap, I really don’t” is exactly what happens in campaign development.
Teams treat strategy like a checklist. Paid? Done. Shared? Posted. Owned? Published. Earned? Maybe later; no budget right now.
Early in the campaign, enthusiasm runs high.
Teams brainstorm, whiteboards fill up, and someone inevitably says, “We’ll just run ads and tie them to the blog.”
Easy, right? Except… PESO isn’t a checklist. It’s an operating system.
I’ve seen teams treat it like a buffet.
Start with some Owned, grab a little Paid, sprinkle in some Shared, and ignore Earned because it feels hard; call it a day.
That’s when human error manifests as siloed execution, inconsistent messaging, or campaigns that fail to align with actual business goals.
But PESO isn’t a buffet; it’s a full-blown recipe. Skip one ingredient, and the whole dish tastes off.
How to Avoid It
Integration matters.
Just like I needed my luggage, campaigns need all four media types working together.
Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned media, paired with cross-functional reviews, are the recipe, not just a dish on the buffet.
You can’t skip the salt and expect the dish to taste right.
Microlearning tools that remind teams that PESO integration is not optional are helpful, but they are not enough.
AI tools can simulate campaign outcomes before launch, flagging misalignments before they become costly mistakes.
Execution: The “Oops, Wrong Button” Phase
Execution is where human error loves to play. This is where the wheels often wobble.
You’ve got earned media coverage, but no one repurposes it into shared posts.
Or someone schedules a big announcement at 2 a.m. because they forgot to check the time zone.
Or worse yet, automation publishes the wrong creative. Cue the frantic Slack/Teams messages.
I recall the time my kids accidentally substituted powdered sugar for flour in their cookies. At first glance, everything looked fine. But one bite revealed disaster.
How to Avoid It
Read the recipe before you bake.
Checklists are your friend. Embed them right into publishing workflows so no one can hit “post” without ticking the boxes.
AI-driven scheduling tools can optimize timing, and compliance alerts can flag missing disclosures before they go live.
Think of it as having a digital safety net that catches you before you serve up a bad campaign.
Measurement: The “Look, We’re Famous!” Trap
Ah, measurement, the land of vanity metrics.
It’s so tempting to celebrate impressions, clicks, and likes.
Metrics that look fancy but don’t actually pair with business goals.
Kind of like the time I confidently paired Burgundy with salmon, feeling oh-so-sophisticated. The wine was bold, the fish was delicate, and the meal was all kinds of wrong.
However, human error often appears as focusing on numbers that don’t matter, misinterpreting analytics, or cherry-picking data to make the campaign appear successful.
Or worse, someone mis-tags a UTM link, and suddenly Paid traffic looks like Owned. Cue the confusion.
The numbers looked good (expensive bottle, fancy label), but the outcome?
A disaster!
Dashboards that proudly display millions of impressions, while the actual business outcomes, let’s say, qualified leads, were barely a blip.
That’s confirmation bias at work.
How to Avoid It
Focus on outcomes, not appearances.
Short refreshers on business-focused timelines and KPIs keep teams grounded.
AI anomaly detection, flag suspicious spikes or gaps, is the sommelier who gently says, “Maybe not that wine with that fish.”
Most importantly, don’t skip the post-mortem. Gather the team, review what worked and what didn’t, and document the key lessons learned.
Post-mortems are the family dinner where everyone laughs about the sugar-free pie but agrees to double-check the recipe next time.
It’s not glamorous, but it’s where growth happens.
Integration: The Silent Killer
Driving home from the grocery store, and ending up on the wrong road because of construction. I wasn’t incompetent. I wasn’t paying attention to the bigger map.
I’ve seen campaigns where PR secured a major media win, but marketing failed to amplify it.
Or where Owned content was brilliant, but Shared posts didn’t link back to it.
The result?
Missed opportunities, diluted impact, and a campaign that feels less like a symphony and more like four soloists playing different songs.
How to Avoid It
Integration is the GPS.
Cross-functional reviews are essential. Get multiple eyes on development, execution, and reporting.
Encourage teams to repurpose wins across channels.
And use AI as the glue. Detect anomalies, flag missed amplification opportunities and remind teams when something hasn’t been shared.
Humans + Systems = Fewer “Oops” Moments
So, what do all these stories, Frankfurt, puppies, pies, detours, PESO, have in common?
Human error isn’t about incompetence. It’s about complexity. Overwhelm! Emotional or physical stress!
Human error isn’t something to fear or hide. It’s something to embrace. Mistakes are inevitable.
We get tired. We get stressed. We get distracted. We get overconfident. We get overwhelmed. And in those moments, mistakes happen.
The PESO Model operating system demands integration, consistency, and accurate measurement, which can be a lot for any team to manage.
But with the right systems, a bit of humor, and a supportive colleague or two, those “oops” moments turn into stories worth telling.
Microlearning keeps humans sharp. AI acts as the safety net. Together, they reduce errors, catch anomalies, and ensure campaigns deliver real value.
At the end of the day, PESO isn’t about perfection.
It’s about progress.
Sometimes, progress means admitting we left the luggage on the carousel, laughing about the sugar-free pie, and building systems that help us do better next time.
Mistakes aren’t the end of the story. They’re the beginning. They’re the moments we learn, laugh, adapt, and grow.
Remember: human error is, well, just part of being human.
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