Innovation or Perfection

The beginning of a new year is traditionally a time to reevaluate priorities, set new goals, and bring about positive changes in our lives. I look forward to this annual reset when I can reinvigorate and motivate myself and my team. Because I strongly believe in embracing change and valuing personal experiences , I want to promote these principles this year by focusing on fostering?innovation and growth. Innovation requires that we not only embrace change, but we also wholeheartedly drive it, as we strive to elevate experiences for our customers. And the first step involves removing barriers to risk-taking and cultivating a growth mindset.

Over the years, I’ve found that some people can become so laser focused on perfection that it becomes a roadblock to creativity, innovation, and progress. Everyone wants to do the best job possible, and everyone can improve themselves, even a little. But at a certain point, the law of diminishing returns prevails.?

When perfectionism paralyzes us, innovation dwindles. Aside from preventing us from achieving business objectives in a timely manner, it can keep us from taking risks that are necessary for innovation to occur.

A philosophy I personally value and work to instill in my team is speed and progress over perfection. I’d rather we move forward imperfectly than look backwards obsessively. Sometimes, we can become so focused on constantly course-correcting to a point where we lose sight of achieving our organization's larger goals of growth and innovation.

To counteract that tendency, I encourage my teams to share ideas and feedback openly, whether we are working through initial proposals or in the middle of execution. In turn, I like to bounce early concepts off my team, so I can receive their candid responses. It’s not always easy, but I value constructive feedback as much – if not more – than agreement.

Seeking balance?

However, just as you can be too obsessed with perfection, you can also be too inattentive to detail, which carries its own risks.?There is a time for innovation and a time for precise execution, when perfection is required.

Outside of work, I like to tinker, and during the pandemic lockdown, I was able to dedicate more time to one of my favorite hobbies, carpentry. Working with wood and hand tools gave me a new outlet while staying at home. I managed to build a desk for my home office, a playground for my daughters, and a dining room table for our house.?

Making furniture requires precision and rigor. Every piece needs to meet basic requirements. As the old saying goes, “Measure twice, cut once,” because it’s better to double-check your work for accuracy than risk a serious mistake. You don't want the chair you're sitting on to collapse because you happened to measure the legs off by an inch or didn't apply enough glue to the mortise and tenon joints!

And when it comes to woodworking, at least for me, precise execution prevails over speed and innovation. Whether it’s the exact cut and material of wood used on my office desk, the carefully applied polish on my dining table, or the ideal height of my daughters’ swings, there’s something so satisfying about achieving that level of perfection.

As in nearly everything, the key is mastering the art of balance . Some tasks will take more time and require more care than others; you certainly wouldn't want your surgeon rushing through an appendectomy to fit more patients into the workday.?But no one wants to get stuck, either, in a perfection paralysis loop, unable to accomplish anything.

Ideally, we can and should work together to help each other mediate between the need for speed and the desire for perfection.????

It starts at the top

If we want our employees to reframe their perspective, that attitude needs to start at the top.?

As a business leader, I want to empower people to make mistakes. It's not that I want them to make mistakes – but I do want my team to have the freedom to take risks without the fear of being chastised for failure. It comes down to trust. I want my employees to come to me if they need help breaking out of a perfection paralysis; they should feel encouraged to send me an early, rough draft to get my initial guidance without worrying that it’s not perfectly polished. Excellence is a work in progress, and we should give ourselves permission to work toward it together, instead of expecting it instantaneously.

Innovation is messy. It doesn't necessarily move in an orderly progression. False starts and dead ends are part of the process. You need only look at companies like Amazon (the Fire Phone ), Alphabet (Google+ ), or Facebook/Meta (Facebook Home ). All launched new products with great fanfare, only to quietly discontinue them later. But, of course, all have had tremendous success elsewhere.

The lesson here is that perfection is unattainable. And if you're always looking backward, you'll never move forward.?

Wishing you all a productive, balanced, and innovative new year.

#HappyNewYear #Innovation #Perfection #Balance #Growth