Asking a Better Question

Before sending a report, Mei asked a colleague, 'Does this look okay?' He quickly said yes. Later, the manager pointed out that one chart showed monthly totals while the report described weekly results. Mei had hoped her colleague would notice that kind of problem.

For the next report, she changed her question. She asked him to check whether the chart periods matched the text. She also explained which figures were still estimates. This time, he knew what to examine and found a mismatch before the meeting.

Mei did not expect every review to catch every error. However, a specific request made the review more useful. Instead of asking for general approval, she gave her colleague a clear task and enough context to do it.