Perfectionism vs productivity

Do you consider yourself to be a perfectionist?

If so, do you see this as a strength or weakness?  Certainly, striving for the best result possible is an admirable quality to have but as is the case for most strengths, too much focus in a particular area can lead to less favourable outcomes.  There are definitely areas where perfection should be sought such as aircraft systems (if aircraft systems were just 99.99% reliable, then there would be about 10 aircraft a day falling out of the sky so clearly, they are much more reliable than this!) and telephone exchanges where the reliability requirements used to be something around less than 10 minutes downtime in 40 years! However, in business, being a perfectionist tends to be more of a weakness than a strength. 

The “Pareto Principle” otherwise known as the “80/20 Principle” states that 80% of the results typically come from 20% of the causes, e.g. 

·        You will typically wear 20% of the clothes in your wardrobe 80% of the time

·        80% of a teacher’s problems will arise from 20% of the class

·        80% of customer issues will come from 20% of your customers and similarly

·        80% of a business’ revenue will come from 20% of its clients 

This also equates to the “diminishing law of returns”, since once you have achieved 80% of the result with 20% of the effort, then achieving the outstanding 20% will require you to expend the remaining 80% of effort! If less than 20% of effort is dedicated, then though this may imply high productivity, it is likely to lead to poor quality output. As we start to apply more than 20% of effort, then the law of diminishing returns kicks in as illustrated in the graphic below.

When I ask leaders in business how many of them have time to get everything done that they need, no one has yet said that they have enough time.  Clearly then compromises must be made in order to achieve the most important tasks. Prioritization is one key way to do this but also optimization of the time spent on tasks is an important factor as well.  The ‘80/20 Principle’ and a recognition that perfectionism is not an efficient approach in business will both assist in improved productivity . 

Ian Ash ACC, AInstIB 

Managing Director OrgMent Talent Solutions - www.omtalent.com.au