Let’s do a thought exercise. Humor me for just a second. How would you grade your professional performance this year? Don’t think too hard, go with the first answer that comes to mind! Got an answer? Be honest, it’s important—I’m going somewhere with this, I promise.
What was your answer? I hope you weren’t too hard on yourself, or else we have bigger problems to worry about.
My focus is on your top performers, your ‘A+' performers, your lovely high achievers. Believe it or not, your key players may be killing innovation in your workforce. That’s right, I said it! (Please don’t hurt me! Put down your pitchforks and let me explain why.)
Some of us know it as the 80/20 rule, others as the Pareto Principle, but when applied professionally, the idea is 80% of your results come from 20% of your actions. Going a step further, the remaining 20% of your results will require 80% of your actions. The key is to not think of these rules in terms of effort, but in terms of how to allocate our most valuable resource: time.
Time often falls victim to the pursuit of perfection. The classic “paralysis by analysis” landmine any of us can step on while overanalyzing a situation, failing to make a decision or progress on task. We’ve all been there, sometimes it can feel unavoidable when looking for the perfect solution to a problem.
If you’re in denial, check out a few classic examples:
- The deadline is hours away...and the page is completely blank (sorry for waiting until the last minute to write this Daniella! Editor's note: It's okay, Ian.)
- There’s a room filled with diverse, brilliant talent...and not a word is spoken when hard questions get asked.
- You’re staring at your technical work...and you have no idea why you’re getting the wrong data.
If our eyes are always watching the clock of perfection, then it’ll never tick in our favor. Perfection is rigid, but innovation is dynamic. Innovation cannot reach the surface with the expectation of perfection planted on top of it. Excellence is achieved through iteration, not through getting things right the first time, and iteration is only feasible with meaningful progress.
Focusing on iteration (not perfection) to promote innovation is a solid theory but putting it into practice can be scary. Here are a few of my recommendations:
- Take 20% “action” on your work. Here’s the critical piece, take that action with no expectations. Trust your instincts—you were chosen for this role and this responsibility for a good reason.
- Share this 20% of your work. This is where things can get scary. You’ll need to share your work with a trusted teammate. Yes, they’ll likely see the same flaws you do but they will also reveal paths forward that weren’t seen on your map to innovation alone.
- Repeat the first step but this time, reach out to another team for a different perspective. How a sales team views a topic may differ from a product team. This is where innovation gains momentum, through diverse viewpoints.
The number of iterations in this process will vary based on the size of the project and that may be tough to initially accept. It's also seemingly a longer process (and you told me that perfection was my time killer!) Keep in mind that you’re doing more than increasing innovation—you’re building internal alignment on an idea that can have a larger impact than anyone envisioned.
If I can leave you with one thing to remember, let it be this: do not let perfect be the enemy of good. Good is plenty to be innovative.
