Karen Casey is the Head of People and Culture at Canidae Pet Food. Karen has dedicated over 25 years to human resources leadership.
getty
Most behaviors we seek in ourselves and in our organizations are rooted in some form of past practice, have brought us some level of success and, most likely, have a personal connection. The term “progress over perfection” is not original to me; it certainly has history, has personal meaning, and has provided perspective and success when staring down the daunting tasks of leading an organization through the Covid-19 pandemic.
The term came to me during a doctor’s appointment nearly five years ago after one of my children experienced a head injury that required her to create a path to a newly defined state of normalcy. Each step forward, literally and figuratively, has required the mindset that progress comes with small, incremental wins that at the time don’t seem like wins at all. It is only upon reflection that progress can be easily recognized. While at this specific appointment the specialist said to my daughter, “I know you don’t feel any better; however, let’s celebrate the progress you have made. When I compare what I saw six months ago of you lying in a hospital bed compared to who I see today, the progress is simply monumental.” At that moment, progress over perfection became a household term for us, and a reminder that each step forward matters now sits on her bedside table.
Progress over perfection has become my mantra no longer just at home, but also with my work, my team, my colleagues and my organization. A global pandemic happened to also coincide with my taking on a new leadership role. To thrive in both has required an attitude of — and a demonstrated set of actions embedded in — resilience.
Prior to this role, I had spent most of my career working within big company infrastructure, with many resources across all the major business “food groups” including people, process and technology. Moving to a small company where resources are limited and processes are constantly evolving, it is very easy to get lost and occasionally defeated in the pounding sea of waves of what we don’t have. Alternatively, bringing the mindset of progress over perfection has made those pounding waves sometimes feel like a nice day at the beach and permission to take a breath, reflect and celebrate.
I learned early on in my career, sitting in a “go/no go” product launch meeting, that if you wait for perfection, neither perfection nor meaningful action will ever become reality. For those of us who are recovering perfectionists, this is a hard concept to accept but wise words, nonetheless. A grand idea will outdate itself before it ever hits the market, consumer or employee because you waited for perfection. Yet, bringing a product or project to market, no matter the end-user, doesn’t mean half-baked work. Rather, it means delivering amazing work — just not perfect work. I often see this as the point where many get stuck.
For example, not too long ago something that on the surface was a simple process migration could have gotten mired in the detail of perfectionism. Nearly a year ago, my CEO showed me his daughter’s offer letter for a summer job. Even in a summer job with a small employer, the level of professionalism and use of technology was impressive. He said, “I want that to be us.” Sparing all the details, this was going to be easier said than done with our current state of affairs that included a manual new employee onboarding process that took about 10 hours end to end — not to mention the impression the lengthy process left on a new hire.
We had a choice to make. We could either do nothing and claim we had “no time and no resources,” scrap everything and beg for new technology or leverage what we had and hope for progress over time. We opted for the latter. We leveraged underutilized technology, employee feedback and process re-design to introduce an entirely new process. Is it perfect? No. Have we arrived? Another no. Is there room for improvement? Of course. Do we still have a lot of work to do? Um, yes! Are we further along than we were 11 months ago? 100%.
The moral of the story is that progress can be made, perfection will never arrive and we can make a positive impact along the way. My daughter’s progress, along with much of what we as HR leaders do every day in the business world, is underscored with hours of hard work to achieve seemingly minimal progress, yet huge strides are being made right before eyes. I think we can all relate, and it’s time to celebrate progress, not perfection.
Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
