If you work for a big company, I’m willing to be that more than once you’ve heard “we just need to get the work done. B+ is OK. Everything doesn’t have to be A+”
In offices all over the planet, people say that every day. But good enough isn’t. If you want to be productive instead of busy, a linchpin instead of a drone, you have to learn to say no to “good enough.”
Taking the extra step, asking more questions, giving more than expected are hard and they take time. In busy offices, understaffed because of economic pressures, time is at a premium. And so is great work.
Sadly, in many corporations, where silos prevent cooperation, committees prevent out-of-the-box thinking, and fear prevents taking chances, good enough is the norm.
As he often does, Seth Godin got me thinking this morning with his post about creating memorable experiences. He wrote:
“Should your product or service be very good, meet spec and be beyond reproach or… should it be a remarkable, memorable, over the top, a tell-your-friends event? …you try to compromise and do both, to please everyone. Sorry, but you can’t.”
After several decades of work, I’m still convinced that “good enough is not.
How about you?
Image by Hugh Macleod
Maybe I’m just cynical, but my first thought was of organizations where “good enough” would be an improvement. Not naming names.
Here here! Sometimes I wonder if this attitude is also generational. I’m a Gen Xer who paid her dues in advertising in the early to mid 90s. More often than not in creative reviews my CD would say, “That’s not good enough. Go back and try again.” Frustrating and time consuming, but he was right. The work was usually better because of it. I don’t find that insistence on excellence in most people I work with today. Maybe it’s where I work (West Coast/Seattle). Maybe it’s Gen Y/millenials. They have a different work ethic. I’m not judging youth or saying that I always work harder, but there is a difference of expectations between now and then. Geesh, sound like Andy Rooney!
Those who are satisfied with being good enough will stay stagnant and passive, while those who strive for quality will continue to be more and more successful.