As a kid, my mom really tried to help me be “perfect,” but I often fell short. It was way too difficult trying to meet someone else’s expectations, so instead, I focused on doing my best, learning, and growing from each experience. I had no idea that was what I was doing; I was only in elementary school, but I knew it was important to do my best.

Fast forward to today. One of the biggest challenges teams I work with have, is letting go of trying to do the work perfectly the first time. They are still stuck in the mindset that they need to deliver everything requested and it needs to be defect-free and they need to hit a date, all because they are afraid to ask “why?” or let someone down.

Rather than focus on delivering everything, what if teams focused on delivering a working something so they can get feedback. The people who generate ideas often exceed the wildest dreams of any user, and teams feel they have to deliver this brilliant idea as designed (without question) to make their stakeholders happy.

What if delivering something small and getting feedback allowed teams to actually meet the true needs of their customers? What if customers prefer practical over cool gadgets they don’t care about? If teams focus on delivering the value customers really want, organizations would save money (by only doing enough to serve their patrons), improve loyalty (by demonstrating that they do listen), and increase employee retention (because team members feel valued). Hmmm…and isn’t that what a company really wants?

Progress, feedback, progress, feedback…actually does lead to perfection.

All my best,

Paulie Skaja
your mindset muse 🙂