How to Achieve Perfection in Product and Process
When you’re striving for perfection, how you reach it may be key to success.
Through the closed door of her office, we can hear Europa screaming in frustration. Her hostile takeover of the Elbonian economy failed at the last moment. “But my strategy was perfect!” she yells. And there’s the shattering sound of yet another lightbulb smashing against the door. On the bright side, now we have an excuse to buy new energy-saving LED light bulbs.
Europa’s strategy may have been perfect, but she spent so long perfecting it that by the time she was ready to execute (and I mean that literally), Elbonia had decided to dissolve itself and reform as the People’s State of Enlightened Certitude. I can’t pretend to understand the political ramifications, but I sure know that a bit less planning and a bit more action on Europa’s part would have gotten her what she wants.
Perfection, Like Magic, Comes with a Price
This is a common problem. We want things to be perfect, and indeed, we may achieve that. We produce the perfect product. We plan the perfect plan. We pen the perfect poem. But when we’re done, we aren’t happy, because it’s late. Or we spent too much money. Or our aspirational shmoopie-to-be got tired of waiting for us to find a rhyme for “locksmith” and ran off with another suitor whose poetry was free verse. We achieved the perfection we wanted, but we did it in a way that made the outcome less than perfect. That’s because we defined “perfect” imperfectly. We didn’t do what was needed to set the right standards for “perfect.”
Defining “perfect” means including standards for the goal, but it also requires including standards for the process.
Use Experience to Choose Process Standards
Before defining the perfect process for any task, you need to identify what made the current outcome less than perfect. If the problem is that it was late, then you care about the calendar and deadlines. If you spent too much money, the problem is not meeting your budget. If people aren’t having enough fun, you need to attend to morale.
Just because you set standards doesn’t mean you need to keep them.
Deadlines, budget, and morale are process standards. They are measurements not of the final product itself, but of the process you go through to get to that product. Whether a product is a car engine, a website, or a marketing report, they can be delivered on time, on budget, and with high morale … or not. Process measures measure how you do the work. There are plenty of other process measures, like overwork needed, team dynamics, how much learning the team does, and so on.
Europa is upset because even though her plan was perfect, her timing wasn’t. It’s the process measurement of schedule that’s vexing her. (Don’t you just love the word vexing? I do.)
A Girl’s Gotta Have Standards—So Do You
Once you know which process measures are the problem, choose standards for them. Ask yourself: what does perfect mean? Where can the process be more relaxed and where does the task need to get done exactly right? Your schedule may be flexible, where things only need to happen near the deadlines they were assigned. Maybe money is tight and you have to be right on budget.
These are the process standards you need for the project to go smoothly. Your process standards are what’s been missing from your definition of perfect. Europa’s perfect process forgot to take into account the Elbonian elections, so that becomes her standard for scheduling. She doesn’t need a standard for spending because, well, let’s just say that the $1.4 trillion that vanished from the world’s economy in 2008 didn’t vanish completely.
Add the Standards to the Scope
After choosing standards, add them to the project’s scope. Make your process standards part of your definition of “perfect.” Europa’s plans for Elbonia now include the outcome, “Have complete control of Elbonian political and economic systems” as well as the process standards “a month before the elections, having spent no more than $5,000 on mind-controlling SIM cards.”
If your habit has been to obsess about the outcomes and not the process, write down your full definition of “perfect” and put it where you see it. Often.
Just intending to do this isn’t enough. Keep reminding yourself that “perfect” takes those measures into account. You can even set reminders for yourself, to train yourself to have your new definition of perfect.”
If you have a daily check-in buddy, add to your list this question: “Did I do my best to make process measures part of my definition of ‘perfect’?”
It’s Anyone’s Prerogative to Change Their Mind
Just because you set standards doesn’t mean you need to keep them. Recalibrate when you need to. Check on your process measures at your weekly status meetings. Make sure everyone agrees that the process is going well. Each week Europa can make sure she still believes that schedule is paramount, and budget doesn’t matter. If she needs to revise, she can. But she’s always reminded that “Perfect” includes the process as well as the outcome.
You want your project perfect, too. To do it, add your process. Identify which parts of the process are important, and define what perfect means for those. Define “perfect” in terms of what you produce, and how you produce it. Write down your definiton of perfect, and check it regularly, to retrain your perfectionism appropriately.
Europa said she’ll be gone for the next two weeks on an overseas trip. Something about elections in Elbonia. Whatever it is, she seems to think it’s critically important. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go sweep up the broken light bulbs covering her office floor.
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I’m Stever Robbins. I run webinars and other programs to help people be Extraordinarily Productive, and build extraordinary careers. If you want to know more, visit SteverRobbins.com
Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!
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About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.
