Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Next Generation Workforce and Workplace

We help individuals, organizations, and communities think innovatively about the next generation workforce and workplace. Read these forward-thinking stories and best practices from our work and lives.

  • 6 Reasons NOT to Strive for Perfection

    6 Reasons NOT to Strive for Perfection

    I used to get so frustrated as a recruiter when I asked the question “What are your weaknesses?” in an interview and I would get the response “I’m a perfectionist.” It seemed to me to be a way to state a “weakness” when in reality striving for perfection, I thought, was a characteristic that is desired in the working world and in fact classified as a strength.

    I’d turn around and probe the applicant in a way that made them tell me what bad behaviors or results arose because of their perfectionism. Most people just stared at me after asking this question. I wanted to say,  “Now give me an answer to this question that isn’t canned!”

    But, now I’m beginning to believe perfectionism truly is a weakness. Here’s why:

    Perfectionism leads to paralysis. In other words, decisions aren’t made because of perfectionism.

    The inability to make decisions leads to stuff not getting done. Number 23 in the article 30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself,  states “#23. Stop trying to make things perfect. – The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done.

    When stuff doesn’t get done, the organization can’t meet customer needs and can’t move forward. You can’t vision for the future and think strategically when you are always trying to make things perfect.

    Perfectionism in the extreme sense is really is just another word for neurotic. If you know a true perfectionist, then you know what I mean. One client engagement I had last year was to improve their hiring practices in order to improve organizational results. After performing an analysis, it was obvious that we needed to implement some type of screening that tested for neurosis. Low performers were exhibiting this characteristic over and over and it was often described as “perfectionism”.

    Learning doesn’t occur when things are perfect.  We often learn more from our failures than our successes, which drives continuous improvement. And continuous improvement does move people and organizations forward.

    Quite frankly, perfect is boring.  And it is never going to happen.

    So if you want to drive results and strategic thinking in your organization, stop telling your people that they need to deliver “perfect”.  Tell them instead they need to be better today than they were yesterday- striving for continuous improvement.  A little bit better today than yesterday is a lot better than being paralyzed today because yesterday wasn’t perfect.

  • Flexibility to Reduce Workplace Stressors

    Flexibility to Reduce Workplace Stressors

    I attended a seminar last week discussing ways to improve productivity and communication in the workplace. One thing that stood out to me in the presentation was the emphasis the presenter placed on eliminating stressors so that people could be innovative and creative. He placed a value on innovation and creativity as the only differentiating factors in creating a sustainable advantage.

    What if standard or traditional work arrangements are creating workplace stressors and reducing innovation and creativity?

    This leads me to consider a tie to a book I mentioned last week,  The Elephant and the Flea  and its emphasis on employing free agents. Charles Handy writes,

    “Meantime, more and more people are going to become aware that their knowledge which drives innovation and creativity has marketable value. They will be reluctant to sell it for a time-based contract, a wage or a salary.  They will want to charge a fee or a royalty, a percentage of the profits.  The difference is that a salary is paid for time spent, whereas a fee is money paid for work produced, irrespective of the time spent on it.” (italics mine.)

    The beauty of this model is that you not only get results, but you get people who are less stressed because they are in control of their own situation, which allows them to be creative and innovative and produce better results.  It also may cost you less.  Many who charge a fee for work produced don’t come with the added cost of a benefit package.

    Or consider the FutureWork Institute described in the book Now You See It. Describing the founder of the institutes philosophy, the author Cathy Davidson writes,

    “The workplace of the future had to start taking into account the life desires, not just the work ambitions, of workers.  She was convinced that the best, most creative workers in the future might not be workaholics with the eighty-hour workweeks, but people who had figured out what way they love to work and how they work best.”

     

    My two year old snoring is eliminating my stress and fostering my creativity…

    As I sit hear writing this post on a Saturday at home, my two year old is asleep in my lap.  Although it took a little maneuvering to get him situated so that I can type,  I can’t help but think that creativity does come when we are in control of when and how work gets done. But maybe that’s the point… blurring the lines of work and life so much that you don’t realize to consider it work, which fosters creativity and innovation.  What could eliminate stress and make writing more enjoyable than two year old contently asleep in your lap?

    What way do you love to work and how do you work best?

     

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