When your action or judgment is misguided or wrong we call that a mistake.  Regardless of the magnitude or visibility, acting or deciding wrongly is a mistake.

Of course, the outcomes and consequences of the mistake might not be in accordance with the type or level of the error.  That is to say a small error could have serious consequences.

And the Oscar goes to……..

Last Sunday was an obvious case where a small slip has disasterous results.  A accountant who works for PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers) gave the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty on Sunday.

This minor slip resulted in the wrong movie being given the best picture Oscar for a brief two and a half minutes.  More than long enough to create a massive, even monumental fuss.

Fate Intervenes

Warren got the wrong envelope with the wrong contents and under usual circumstances, you would expect he would recognize the winners card was incorrect and stop the train before the crash.

To be fair, Mr. Beatty is 79 and was slowly working through his mind  the puzzle of the strange winners card .  Faye Dunaway, his co star in the 1968 Oscar Best Picture nominated movie “Bonnie and Clyde” , was the co-presenter.

Unfortunately, the relationship between Faye and Warren was a little acromonious.  In particular she is known to have little patience with his slow considered approach.

So Faye, loosing patience with Warrens slow progress, snapped the card from Warren , glanced at it, and read the wrong winner.  And so the error that began with the wrong envelope was exposed.

Fortunately!

In this case the impact is large but certainly not irrepairable, after all  the winning movie was recognized.

I am a little sad for the PWC accountant who will probably bear the brunt of consequences  but really to some extent was only a victim of circumstance.