Go be not perfect.

Would we make better decisions if we knew it was okay to fail?

Last month, our team switched help desk systems. This decision would change our workflows, processes and day to day. The change was the most impactful for my team directly, but it also had a ripple effect to the whole company. In short: it was big.

I found myself in a decision paralysis. Once I had honed in on what we were after, all of the options were good, but I couldn’t get past that to decide which one was the best. Which one was THE answer.

My team took a video call to discuss all the options and come to a decision together. After laying out the possibilities, one of my teammates asked me which one was my pick. I told her I had a clear pick, but I hadn’t wanted to cloud the discussion or sway the decision making.

It was at that point that she made a statement which turned the whole activity for me, by saying:

“Chelsea — they’re all great options, each with pros and cons. The best thing you can do is pick the one that you think is best, flip the switch, and we’ll see what happens. We’re a team, we’ll make it work. The worst that can happen is we make process changes, which we can handle.”

This doesn’t seem like a big statement, but, essentially she told me that it would be okay if things weren’t perfect. And that is huge.

What would you do if you knew it was okay to fail?

When was the last time you told a teammate to go out on a limb, and that you supported them, even if they failed, or the decision wasn’t perfect? I have realized that this is something I don’t do enough, and want to make more of an effort of supporting.

The truth is — a lot of the time we’re seeking “best” over simply “better.” During my time as a LEAN sensi, we frequently mentioned: “Don’t let best get in the way of Better” — or — don’t let the perfect world you’ve imagined get in the way of something becoming any amount better right now.

And sometimes better is just ripping off the bandaid, making a decision, and turning on the switch.

In the end, we didn’t fail. In fact, it went really well.

We changed help desk systems on a slow Sunday afternoon. Monday morning we picked up and worked like it was any other day. Sure, there were questions and bumps, but nothing caught on fire, and nothing came tumbling down.

Following the change, I spent time digesting and recapping how it went. I wrote lessons learned, and thought through how it all shook out. As I’ve thought through it, I’ve realized that it wasn’t at all perfect. There were gaps, unstable moments, and a few minutes (okay longer) of doubt — but it didn’t feel like it was ever falling apart.

I’ve spent some time trying to figure out why that is — why did it sometimes feel scary but never unsafe — and I (think) I’ve got it — we knew it was okay to fail.

It seems like nothing, but I have been blown away but how big of an impact this attitude had on the team.

We knew it was okay for it to not be perfect, and this led to us speaking up about the parts that weren’t working, having honest dialog, and getting them fixed.

This transition was far from perfect, but it wouldn’t have turned out so great if we had thought it had to be.

Go be not perfect.

I have the extreme pleasure to share the ups and downs of this journey with some wonderful folks over at Support Driven — an online community for Customer Support Professionals. Right now we are focusing on writing for us, and have put together a fun writing challenge. Feel free to join us — we’d love to have you!