During the media blitz for her new – wildly successful – book, “Lean In,” Sheryl Sandberg introduced me to possibly one of the most interesting business concepts I’ve ever heard.
Apparently, she (and the other senior staff at Facebook) believe in this message so much, that there’s a poster of it hanging on the walls of the Facebook offices.
But is done really better than perfect?
In the business world, deadlines are everywhere – and while, generally, it’s better than hand in something rather than nothing, handing in something sub-par can – in my opinion – reflect quite poorly on your abilities and work ethic.
A friend of mine recently was faced with a dilemma.
She’s been tasked with planning her company’s attendance at a huge conference, and while finalizing some of the visual details (their branding on a large video monitor, specifically) she noticed that it was incorrect. Although her boss has already “put the project to bed,” my friend took it upon herself to ask the video team to make the tiny correction. Her boss told her that there was no need to worry about it, and that it isn’t necessary to always have things be 100% perfect. But my friend’s opinion (and mine) is that having something that noticeable (the company logo on a huge monitor) not be perfect would be huge mistake that would come back to bite them (and most likely my friend – not her boss) in the end.
So who’s right? In most situations I would say a supervisor is always correct. Or at least, their wishes should be adhered to. However, when your integrity and reputation are on the line, I’d say that you should go with your gut.
To me – the “done is better than perfect” mantra can only apply in a specific type of situation, which is if you absolutely must turn something in immediately and there simply isn’t time to make it perfect. In that instance then yes, done is better than perfect. But if you have the time, resources, and know-how to make something perfect – so long as it isn’t at the expense of other pressing issues – then I would have to say perfect (or as near to it as possible) is always, always better.
What do you think?