When Good Enough…Isn't
When Good EnoughIsn't
When Good EnoughIsn't
When it comes to the status quo, one phrase defines it and ensures it will continue. It's a simple two word phrase that has a profound impact on our businesses, our lives, and our world. You've guessed it; the simple two words are "good enough".
For the last three decades, I have had the opportunity to win and lose with my teams in the battle against "good enough". When we've won, innovation is usually the result and with it the financial and personal rewards that innovation brings. When we've lost enough times to reaffirm that "good enough" is the culture of the organization or unit, it's time to move on. You see, "good enough" organizations never stay "good enough". "Good enough" means standing still and sooner or later "good enough" organizations get passed by organizations that recognize that good enough isn't.
If it's not broke
Observation is the best way to identify organizations that are falling prey to "good enough" thinking. You can see it in their products, on the faces of their people, and hear it in their hallways with telling phrases like "If it's not broke, don't fix it." Think about it. It's hard to have pride in a product that is "good enough" or to get your team or your customers excited about it. When was the last time you saw a marketing campaign for a product that read "You'll love our product. It's good enough"?
Granted, you can't always wait until a product or service is perfect. If you did, nothing would ever get released or go to market. But those that have won the battle of "good enough" understand that as soon as the first generation product is ready to launch, the second generation product is in development or even production. This type of continuous innovation keeps companies at the top of their industry group. Just ask Intel, Apple, or Google. Innovation is not a company buzzword, it's an operating philosophy that is embedded in their culture and every day activities. Even Microsoft, who is notorious for releasing software when it is "good enough", succeeds because the next fix and the next one and then next one are just days away.
The University of NIH
Too often we find "good enough" battles in the places we should least expect them. Stymied by the school of thought that if it was Not Invented Here, it can't be a "good enough", these organizations stagnate in a pool of their own thinking. You'll find indoctrinates of NIH in some of our largest organizations, our governments, and our community organizations as well as in our small businesses. To them the status quo is comfortable and safe while outside thinking is radical or foreign. Yet companies that have learned to look outside their own four walls for new innovations lead their fields. Just look at Hoffmann-LaRoche and Cisco to name two..
The Why Bother Lament
I hear the "Why Bother" lament almost every day. Whether it is from a teenager twice my size who does not want to make his bed in the morning "Why bother it will just get messed up when I sleep in it again tonight" or a CEO who is delaying a decision "Why bother, we'll just have to change it again later" the Why Bother Lament keeps the status quo firmly in place, frustrates teammates looking for action, and inhibits progress. "Why bother" is the natural precursor to "good enough". Innovators bother by nature. For them, today's success is never "good enough". It's just a step along the path to the next challenge or set of improvements.
The Next Generation
We see the results of "good enough" in some many places and with so many challenges. Just look around you at our healthcare system, our Federal Deficit, and the decisions that led to disasters like Katrina and BP. Maybe it's time to retire ""good enough"" thinking and look to a new generation of leaders, the ones that see something that needs changing, say "We've Had Enough", and get to work on creating something better than "good enough". Just imagine the impact that might make in our businesses, in our homes and in our country.
About the Author: Joan Koerber-Walker
Joan Koerber-Walker is an entrepreneur, an executive, an investor, and an active volunteer in her community. Joan's career includes 20 years in executive roles within a Fortune 500 company, entrepreneurial ventures, angel investments (starting in 1989), non-profit and community leadership, and as an advisor to universities, corporations, entrepreneurs, and non-profits. A popular keynote speaker, blogger, and friend to over 100,000 across social media platforms, she is also a wife and a mother to two BIG boys. Joan and her family make their home in Phoenix, Arizona.
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