Have you ever thrown your hands up and asked, why can’t we just do this correctly? It’s not that hard, right? Whether it’s painting the molding in your living room or launching a new ad campaign, how tough is it to take the time to do something well?
We know what it takes to accomplish a whole range of difficult tasks. If you want to save money make a budget, keep track of how much you spend, and stick to it. If you want to lose weight then count calories and make sure you burn more than you consume. But we all know these are difficult things to do, and in business it’s exactly the same way.
So, why do have this gap between what we believe is the correct way to do something and our experience of actually doing it? What makes it such a challenge to just do it right? Here are four common reasons that I’ve seen over and over again.
1. Lack of knowledge
How often do we get the chance to step back and look at the competitive landscape again? Sure we did that when we wrote our business plans, but after year three? I don’t think so. We’re so busy doing our jobs that it’s difficult to spend the time to research our markets, look at our business from an outside perspective, or even evaluate our successes and failures. And this lack of knowledge is often what keeps us from doing the right thing. We may execute an otherwise flawless plan, but if we’re not talking to the right people, or the market has shifted, none of it makes any difference.
We need to take the time to understand our business and the market before we can do anything the right way.
2. Short Term Thinking
Again, we’re all busy people and it’s often difficult enough to think through the end of the day let alone the next month. But if someone in your organization isn’t thinking about three to fives years out you’re going to get lost. We can only make good decisions when we can step back and take the time to seriously plan ahead. If your plan isn’t based on looking forward (in years) then it’s nearly impossible to make real progress.
3. Money
It takes real money to make big changes. We all get in the habit of going with a low bid, and that habit can cause real problems. While higher prices don’t always mean better service, if you’re not getting the best help you can afford you’re cutting the wrong corners. A great printer, for example, costs more money, but the results are so superior it’s impossible to compare. At the end of the day if you’re business is built around hiring the cheapest vendors around you’re going to end up with lackluster growth.
You need #1 and #2 if you’re going to spend money wisely though. You need the knowledge to decide what is best, you need long term thinking to know where to go, and then you need to invest in yourself. You wouldn’t hire a babysitter who charges $2 an hour, yet we do that for our business every day and it’s just as dangerous.
4. The Final 10%
As a designer, I learned a long time ago that the final 10% is what makes the biggest difference. A great idea can come in a flash, but to work out the details takes hard slow work. As we near the end of a project it’s easy to get exhausted and excited to be done. But if we don’t put in the final push, we’re going to pay for it later.
If you are wondering, “why didn’t this perform better” chances are good that you took it out of the oven before it was done. So, once you know what you’re doing, you’ve made good long term plans, and you’ve invested what you need to succeed, make sure you push through to the end. Proofread everything, talk to the skeptics again, and if you need to, step away for a few days and then come back to it. You’re better off pushing something back and making sure it’s really ready than leaving off that last 10%.
So, the next time you’re wondering why everyone didn’t just do it the right way, stop and look at what’s involved. Many organizations are set up to only do things incorrectly. You need to cultivate an ecosystem that allows room for perfection. It doesn’t have to be overly serious, and it shouldn’t be painful, but it takes commitment and it takes hard work.
Personally, I also think it’s more fun.