Is “good enough” good enough?
A non-pragmatic approach to quality
Is “good enough” good enough? The logical answer to that should be yes, of course! But since I am such a contrarian I am about to respond with a resounding “no”. And I think there are some good arguments for it too.
We live in a world where “good enough” has become the norm. I have already written about this when it comes to household appliances and content marketing, but you can find it everywhere, movie scripts, fighter jets, fashion.
“Good enough” phone companies, “good enough” restaurants, “good enough” dog daycares, who wants them? No one! If we have a choice then we want things to be perfect. It sounds almost narcissistic to say “I want this to be perfect!”, “I am a perfectionist!” as if that was unreasonable in any way.
It isn’t!
Yeah, yeah, there are reasons why things are not perfect, but why should we accept a life in mediocrity?
Calibrating the compass
Before we start, let’s have a look at where we want to go. I am picking “quality” and “perfection” as the direction here. This is “quality” according to the Oxford Dictionary:
The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.
Oxford Disctionary’s definition of “perfect”:
Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.
Sounds great! Consider it done! No pressure!
Let’s get scientific!
Let’s assume that the more time you spend on a task the better it gets, the higher quality of the result. Not always true but substantially more true than the opposite 😊. So here is a diagram showing someone trying to achieve a perfect result:
The degree of excellence increases over time, but the closer you get to “perfect”, the more time and effort you need to put into it. You can get close but not all the way, almost like when you are approaching the speed of light. Super tricky. So is perfection impossible?
Clearly we need to tilt the game. Let’s aim a little higher than “perfect”:
Look at that! If we set totally unrealistic goals, what happens? Perfection is achievable! And not only that, we got there in the same time it took to get to the “good” level in the example before!
You can argue that this is just a stupid diagram with curves that I made up just to make a point. And you would be 100% right! So what does it actually prove?
The value of unrealistic goals
Let’s start with a truism: if you have a “good enough” mindset it is very unlikely that you get to greatness. You must set the goals higher. I think I have seen that in some self-help book before 😜.
Why we can achieve more in shorter time might not be obvious. The reason is that if we have a “good enough” mindset and look for solutions to a problem, then we will only find “good enough” solutions. We will not see solutions that could take us higher because we haven’t even realized that we need them. But if our goals are on a higher level, then how we view problems will be too, which will lead to higher level solutions and outcome.
Solving problems on a higher level immediately removes many lower level problems and chunks of work. Higher level solutions lead to a better foundation and less complications during the rest of the project. If we apply this thinking from the start then we can achieve much more in shorter time.
This increases effiency but more importantly creativity and quality. The less time we need to spend getting things to work the more time we can spend in unexplored potential greatness!
All this is closely connected to what I wrote about creating a mindset for problem solving and innovation, and will for sure be a topic for a future article (so much to write, so little time!).
The messy reality
In reality nothing will ever look like my sweet Bezier curve approaching perfection. In most projects it will be a mess from the very start, but it will not be clear exactly how until much later.
The theoretical curve above assumes that you start working and producing value from the start and continue to build on that through the process. There will be numerous moments where you have to make decisions on which you will build on for the rest of the project. The consequences of such decisions might be obvious afterwards, but when you are in the middle of it, not so much.
Then you add a bunch of team members where each and everyone has to make these decisions, and where everybody depends on each other. This is when a pragmatic “good enough” starts to sound just fine!
But that is not our end game.
You can’t polish a turd
Things will go wrong, again and again, they always do 😊. The first question to ask is this something that we should build on or something that has to be redone? Is this a raw diamond or a turd? Be honest now because this could be one of those pivotal moments.
It doesn’t take more time to do it right than to do it wrong, but it takes an awful lot of time to redo it.
If it is a diamond then keep going but if it is a turd, then throw it away and restart. Maybe there is something of value in there (gross!) but most of the time it isn’t, so just accept this and drop it.
It might feel sad to throw away lots of work, but it actually isn’t, it is a good thing:
- you know that things will be built on a good foundation and that it won’t come back and bite you at a later time. This is a really satisfying feeling.
- there is no other way to get better at what you do. It is the very last push that gives the results. This is true for a runner, a tax auditor, a horse whisperer or chef. If you stop at “good enough” then your work will always be just good enough, never exceptional.
- there is a carrot and stick effect that should not be underestimated. Some mistakes has to be repeated again and again before we learn, fixing them for the third time will for sure feel far too familiar.
And who wants to polish turds anyhow?
The deadline is our friend!
Time is a scarce resource to begin with, we don’t have it in unlimited amounts. That is why it is so important to use it for something valuable and meaningful, such as learning and getting better at what we do.
Having a deadline is essential since it puts everything into perspective. It creates an urgency to make the right decisions, to prioritize between all the things that we “have” to do. It makes us ask ourselves: what is the most important thing to do right now, what would create the most value? It will also force us to find new and better solutions, to be more creative and innovate.
If we have strived for perfection through the process and it is time to deliver then we can rest assured that what we did was more than “good enough” 😊.
Here is a list of related posts that you might like:
If something feels complicated… — Creating a mindset for problem solving and innovation
5 simple steps that will make you a creative genius — No doodling, inspiration or walks in the woods required
Is “good enough” good enough? — A non-pragmatic approach to quality
Embrace complexity!!! What?!! — How to solve complex problems the blurry way
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