By now, the news of Ann Curry’s commencement speech at Wheaton College has circled the globe a few times. To make a long story short, she confused the college in Massachusetts (where she was speaking) with a similarly named school in Illinois.  Ouch. But to her credit, she did apologize and say she was “mortified” by her mistake.

What can we learn from all this?A few lessons…

Check your research. Check it again. Even if you are reading it off the teleprompter, make sure what you are reading is true. Own your research and stand by it.

Own up to the mistake. Sure, you confused two similarly named colleges that are half a country apart. But admit you were wrong, admit you were sorry for the gaffe, and move on.

Take corrective action. Learn from what you did wrong. Put corrective measures in place. Perhaps this means take a little more time with your research, trust but verify what is put in front of you, install checkpoints, find an additional set of eyes to review, whatever it takes. Sure, these measures take longer than what you were doing before, but the extra time will be worth it.

Oh, and Happy Memorial Day!!!