Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

I will never forget that day. I shuffled into my first law school exam. It was on property law. I was already on edge.  Then I read the one and only exam question.

"Man is made of wood so crooked, nothing he builds shall ever be straight."  Please describe how this Immanuel Kant quote relates the development of American property law.

Professor Eagle, Author of "The Queston."

A few students gasped. A few more muttered to themselves. My heart raced a bit, but I finally settled down and started an outline. Needless to say, I (as well as my classmates) survived the ordeal.

That memory flooded back recently when I read this article from LinkedIn: Corporate Cultures Can Be Vibrant And Healthy, But They'll Never Be Perfect. 

The author, Jennifer Miller, discusses an interesting subject. The pursuit of perfection in an imperfect world. I think this paragraph sums up her argument.

A process doesn’t have feelings, but people do. When team members demand relentless perfection of one another in the workplace, they create unrealistic expectations for both work output and interpersonal effectiveness. This is not a call for tolerating mediocrity. On the contrary, in the workplace people should continually seek process improvement. All the while, they must be mindful: The creatures in charge of the process are human. Mistakes happen. People misjudge situations. Tempers flare. As humans, it’s what we do. Expecting perfection in the way humans relate to one another is like expecting every golf game to have a hole-in-one shot. It’s unrealistic.

I see her point.  But as a manager, it is a fine line to walk. You must hold people accountable, but you have to acknowledge that your'e dealing with human beings. Sure, the world is not perfect. But you need to push for improvements.

It certainly is something I struggle with. So good readers, let me ask you this: How do you approach this? Do you shoot for perfection? Improvements? Perfect processes?