My wife – otherwise known as Mrs D, or sometimes Ms H when she’s cross with me, occasionally feeds back on my blog posts. She’s a technical writer and has a laser eye for typos and other inadvertent gotchas. She also lets me know when she has no interest in my posts. These are usually the ones focused on sales and marketing, so pretty well all of them.

This blog post is about how to recover from a mistake and I’m going to cite an example from one of her current addictions, which will hopefully induce her to get to the end of it.

When you’ve made a booboo, the best way to recover is to come clean, and if you can be self-deprecating and humorous too, then all the better. When a worthy third party also benefits from your recovery, then it’s a slam dunk.

Take the recent much-publicised gaffe in a promotional shot on the Instagram account of Downton Abbey.  The BBC gleefully reported on the ‘water-bottle-gate’ affair which affected its commercial broadcasting rival. These things happen and the word gets out very quickly and virally thanks to the times we live in.

What better response than to publish a self-mocking response, together with a link to the charity WaterAid UK who work to provide safe water to those that need it.

Nicely done eh, Mrs D?