294. Perfection Is Not The Purpose
Expecting perfection is a damaging perspective. If you want to create a strong culture and a stronger team, there's a better way to look at it.
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My daughter’s elementary school recently underwent a few upgrades. They redesigned the library, created a new lunch area, and updated the playground with some really nifty structures that I wish were in the playgrounds I played in as a kid.
It all looks so perfect.
Next to the playground, the school built a new walkway that climbs the slow rise to the administration building. Not coincidentally, the walkway has 26 steps, each representing a letter of the alphabet.
The first step has “Aa” engraved in its cement, the second “Bb”, etc.
After the contractor proudly finished his work on the stairs, the administration gathered to admire its beauty.
That’s when somebody noticed a problem.
A big problem.
This is what they saw as they walked up the first 7 stairs:
Aa
Bb
Cc
Dd
Ed
Ff
Gg
Yes, stair number 5 had a big mistake. Instead of Ee, it said Ed.
Remember, this is an elementary school. The sole purpose is to teach kids. The very basics of teaching are the ABCs.
So what does it say about a school that can’t even get the basics correct in one of the most highly trafficked areas on campus?
Needless to say, the administration made a quick and easy decision about what to do with the mistake on the walkway.
They decided to keep it as it is.
The Lesson on Perfection
I have a leadership coaching client named Gary. Gary is very smart and quite good at his job. He has a talent for turning complex ideas into reality. But that’s not why I brought him up.
You see, Gary has one major personality flaw that negatively impacts his reputation at work: he expects perfection.
Unfortunately, things go wrong in his industry all the time. It’s kinda the nature of the work.
So when Gary’s team runs into problems on a project, which happens periodically, Gary’s natural tendency is to play the victim. Instead of taking responsibility for his team’s part in the overall company dynamic, he blames other departments for what they did (or didn’t do) to cause his team to fail.
Making mistakes doesn’t motivate Gary to do better, mistakes demotivate him.
Even worse, mistakes cause Gary to separate his department from the rest of the company in an Us vs Them sort of way. With each new mistake, he backs himself and his team further into their own silo.
I suppose the irony of this is that Gary’s unhealthy reaction to the lack of perfection is exactly the thing that will guarantee an increased lack of perfection in the future.
Expecting Perfection Or Striving For It
If you always expect perfection, you’ll rarely be satisfied with your life.
Keep in mind, there’s a big difference between “expecting perfection” and “striving for perfection.”
Expecting perfection is damaging. Like Gary, if you demand flawlessness in everything you do, you’ll constantly be disappointed. Rather than using these setbacks as opportunities to grow, you’ll feel frustrated and look to others for blame.
On the other hand, someone who is striving for perfection has a motivational mindset. A person who strives for perfection may be disappointed when they make errors, but they are fueled by that disappointment. They use the frustration as a motivator to be more effective in the future.
Discontentment is the engine that fuels growth.
Failure Is Required
When asked about the light bulb, Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
In 1985, Steve Jobs was fired as CEO of Apple, the company he created. He went to another company and learned how to be a stronger leader. If it weren’t for his initial failure as a leader, he probably wouldn’t have turned Apple into as successful of a company as he did when he returned as CEO in 1996.
In the 1960s, 3M spent a lot of money to create a new, super-strong adhesive. They failed to do so and only came up with a light adhesive. They decided to put that adhesive on little yellow squares of paper and called it Post-It Notes. The R&D failure led to the development of one of the most iconic office products, and one that remains relevant deep in the technology era.
The road to growth is littered with the shattered shards of many mistakes.
I grew up in Connecticut. When I graduated high school, each student in my graduating class received a beer stein as a gift from the school. I’m not sure what they were trying to tell us. We weren’t even of drinking age at that point - but that’s a whole different barrel of barley.
All these years later I keep the beer stein on my desk.
Why?
Because they misspelled Connecticut on it.
The stein is my daily reminder that perfection is not the purpose.
The purpose is progress.
And progress rarely needs to be perfect.
Why Perfection is Not the Purpose
Perfection is the plague of the Imposter.
Maintaining perfection is impossible.
Striving for perfection, however, is a beneficial way to drive continuous improvement. We must learn from failures and celebrate our progress, regardless of how deformed they may appear.
There are a few ways this can be done.
For leaders, it’s important to create a culture where people know it is safe to fail.
It’s important not to hide the mistakes, but to talk about them and celebrate the learnings.
You just don’t want the same mistake repeated multiple times. That’s a problem.
A neat idea is to implement the Mistake Of The Month award. Let staff vote for the person in the past month who best turned a mistake into a win - then celebrate that mistake.
By celebrating the power of not being perfect, you encourage everybody to be more innovative and take more chances.
For individuals, you must shift your mindset from expecting perfection to one of striving to be your best. Making mistakes often means you’re trying something new. Recognize your progress and celebrate it.
A Perfect Ending
In the end, perfection is overrated. It’s boring.
Flaws are fun.
Mistakes make progress happen.
You’re not perfect, nobody is.
So don’t hold other people up to that standard - you’d just be setting both of you up for failure.
This brings us back around to the very lesson that the leadership team at my daughter’s school decided to teach, by keeping the alphabetical error in cement for everyone to see:
Everybody makes mistakes. Even adults.
There’s no reason to be embarrassed.
There’s no reason to be upset.
Let’s put it all out in the open and remind ourselves that the path we walk down in life, will never be perfect. The only perfect part is that it will always lead to a better you.
Do you have departments that are siloed? Do you wish you had a more integrated and effortless team dynamic? I can help. We should talk.
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Great post. Love the idea of the "Mistake of the Month".
Also, this post reminded me of a quote from Chesty Puller:
"And instead of keeping such things (mistakes) secret, we ought to have 'em emblazoned on the gate at every naval station. We must not be too proud or too stupid to profit by our mistakes–and God knows we make 'em."
Quite few people talk about « perfection and making things done » paradigm but less people talk about another one « it works - why we should change it ». Interested to see your point on that.