The word is out: perfectionism stifles improvement. In our personal lives, most of us know that perfectionism can lead to procrastination, a mass of unfinished (because they are "imperfect") projects, wasted time, frustration, inaction, and low self-esteem. Despite this knowledge and many people's ability to accept imperfection in their everyday lives, perfection often permeates the work environment, many times without anyone realizing it.
Has your process design/definition project been active for years, but you still haven't rolled out new, streamlined processes to the work force? Do you feel like you have meetings about the same processes over and over again, without completing those designs?
You may be searching for the perfect process, and the tragedy is that no such thing exists.
No process is perfect. Process design is an ongoing project. Circumstances change, and processes need to be updated to reflect new organizational needs. Certainly, processes should not change all the time—constant change would lead to inconsistency throughout the enterprise. But processes that never change grow stagnant, and employees will eventually stop following them and make up better (but unaligned) solutions.
Moreover, many processes need built-in flexibility. Especially in business areas like new product development, no single process will work for everything. Employees should have the opportunity to request modifications to a process when needed or have multiple courses they can follow within a process.
Having rigorous processes that are followed consistently throughout the enterprise helps an organization reach its goals and streamline its performance. But common sense should be applied to those processes, and you must acknowledge the reality of changing circumstances and particular work needs by creating adaptable processes where appropriate.
We've released several articles on designing rigorous processes with flexibility built directly into the process structure.
- Allow Flexibility Within Rigorous Processes
- Flexibility Strengthens Performance Measurement Systems
- Choose Appropriate Tools to Support Process Frameworks
If you never apply your nicely designed processes in real working conditions, you will never know if they work. Don't waste time trying to design the "perfect process." After putting a reasonable amount of work into the process design, get it out there and see what happens when theory meets reality. Make changes as necessary; the process can evolve. It doesn't have to be perfect on the first go-round... or ever. The right processes for your organization are defined by reality, not business theory, and will change over time.
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I'm considering writing an article on organizational perfectionism. Here's a short list of clues that can indicate perfectionism problems within your organization. Comment below if you have any you’d like to add or change.
- You hold dozens of meetings for strategic initiatives, but never see the fruits of those projects.
- Strategic initiatives tend to die off after a few months without anyone seeming to say anything about it.
- You are extremely hesitant to promote the most talented people to new positions or to move them laterally into new departments. It may seem as though less talented individuals get assigned to new positions much more often than high-performing employees.
- You spend a lot of money on employee training and fancy tools, but no one can figure out exactly where to apply the training or what the tools are really meant to accomplish.
- You are hesitant to set strategic priorities, or no one knows what the organization's current priorities are.
- Your enterprise process design/definition project has been active for years (or much longer than initially planned), but you still haven't rolled the designs out to the work force.
More explanation will be coming in the article. I'd love to hear any other clues you would like to suggest, based on what you've experienced before. And let me know if you disagree with any of these. Just comment below.