How progress actually looks like
Posted on May 31, 2018 by Mihai Muntean, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
An argument for imperfect, immediate action.
This is for all the diligent students out there looking to get it right the first time in the business world. If you have an analytical profile and a history of over-achieving, chances are you will not go out in the world with your ideas until you feel confident that they are polished to perfection. If you are entrepreneur or a business owner, this strategy will both delay your success and prevent you from learning anything of value from your prospective clients. If you are the leader of a team, this strategy will prevent your team from contributing early on and co-create a success as well as from growing.
Here’s an alternative approach you might consider.
Ed Catmull, President of Pixar Studios of “Finding Nemo” or “Toy Story” fame, talks openly about how the process that led to their iconic successes looked like: “Early on, all of our movies suck. That’s a blunt assessment, I know, but I… choose that phrasing because saying it in a softer way fails to convey how bad the first versions of our films really are. I’m not trying to be modest or self-effacing by saying this. Pixar films are not good at first, and our job is to make them go… from suck to non-suck. We are true believers in the iterative process – reworking, reworking and reworking again, until a flawed story finds its throughline or a hollow character finds its soul.”
I love how he defines the job of his team: making the products go from suck to non-suck. Making it work. Not getting it right the first time.
Makes you think about how to divide the time between strategizing and executing.
