4 hours of work. Gone in 2 seconds.
My brain had a complete fade and I just… did it. I felt absolutely dumb. No autosave. No version history. Just a sinking stomach and a frantic Slack to the admin who, bless him, could do nothing.
(Side note: someone else had done the same thing a fortnight earlier. He’s now looking into backups. Better late than never.)
I was bracing for half a day of pain. Then my colleague said, “Honestly? It’ll take you an hour.”
He was right. Door to door, starting from scratch: 60 minutes.
Here’s what that little disaster taught me about digital transformation:
- Planning is the real work
I’d already done the thinking. Redoing the execution was easy. If your digital projects feel slow, you’re probably skipping prep. - Familiarity with your tools is an asset
The more time you spend in a system, the faster you move when things go sideways. That “wasted” learning time? It pays back when it matters. - Backups aren’t optional
Yes, obvious. And yet. If your team doesn’t have a backup protocol, you’re one bad click away from a very bad afternoon. - Repetition is a skill builder, not just recovery
Doing something twice locks it in. My second attempt was faster AND better. There’s a lesson in that for onboarding and training design. - Share the pain AND the wins
My colleague’s calm response turned a crisis into a quick fix. That’s what psychological safety in a digital team looks like. - One person’s mistake is the whole team’s learning
Two people deleted work in the same system within two weeks. That’s a signal, not a coincidence. Build processes from patterns.
Digital transformation isn’t just about tools. It’s about the habits, safety nets, and culture you build around them.
It’s one of the reasons I do what I do at Digital Team Coach. The tools are the easy part. The habits around them are everything.
What’s one “oops” moment that taught you something you’ve never forgotten?