In my world of consulting to governments, we have wet the bed of societal mis-trust we have in government. Our set point is equivalence to finger nails on a chalkboard. Pot-shots are free, and we have taken liberty to launch them like we took Cockburn’s “If I had a rocket launcher” song lyric to heart. Add a salt-lover’s sprinkle of online trolls who love nothing more than to tear down. Destructive is easy. Constructive is hard. Becoming part of the solution harder still.

And so what are those working in government to do? Well it’s only human to build a suit of armour to repel the critics and perfectionists. Engage in “cover your assets” surveys and focus groups to numbness of analytical tail waging the progress dog. Be “professional” in that clipped, metal jacket style. Button the personalities up. Never be wrong. Be a knower of everything and the perfect predictor of the future. Be invulnerable and bulletproof.

Here’s the thing folks: no one wants to be this way…to be perceived as arrogant and cold…people who don’t feel real anymore…building the bricks in the wall of dis-trust between regular folks and what we facetiously call “the elite” these days. This is the monster we have created in our withering critique. We feed the downward cycle of conflict with every shot we fire across the bow.

Working to achieve perfection may work for awhile on an individual basis, but before long we reach out to our on-call therapist. We stare at the gushing hose of information and fret about what we can never know. We take everything everyone says about our imperfection to heart. We let it eat at the soul of us.

We are broken. We need a way back.

To do that, we need to behave with a reality hug: humans aren’t robots. They are faces and names and emotions and relationships. Progress doesn’t lie in plans, it lies in people and the individual and collective capacity to be great that we nurture. And people are beautifully imperfect.
To do that, we need to embrace new language: comfort in our discomfort, evolution, solve problems, study enough to see patterns then let human brilliance run with it, value experience and judgement, stepping stones, more action and less talk.

Creativity is messy. Innovation is messy. Progress is messy. Change is exponential. Achievement in this context…is a human undertaking. What isn’t messy is status quo or clinging to the nostalgia of the past. That has a surety of momentum like a lullaby for most – which is how the Titanic got into trouble. We are trying to solve so much with the big thing that we forget that humanity is best able to chew on bite-size pieces. The failure of plans or progress these days isn’t data and the seeking of perfection – it’s the perfect imperfect of human relationships and communication.

I think the simplest question to ask of any effort to make progress is a simple one: is it better than where we are now? If the answer is yes, do it. Am I solving a problem? If the answer is yes, do it. Once you do that, keep moving forward – one step at a time. You may get to something even better down the road, but you accept the imperfect in the journey. Darwin was onto something with that theory of evolution thing. It sure beats staring at a giant strategic plan, and having that nagging feeling you just want to hand it back to the powers that be with an “it’s too hard” remark.

It’s our flaws and our struggles that make us as people powerful in our remarkability. Same goes for coins and stamps – most valuable for all their flaws. Value incrementalism. Act. Don’t be afraid to fail. Embrace the perfect imperfect. Set yourself free….

src 1 Thomas Curran and co-author Andrew P. Hill of York St John University looked at data from more than 40,000 American, Canadian and British college students who completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. The pursuit of perfection can have a detrimental effect on someone’s mental health, according to this new research. Src: https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/09/health/perfection-mental-health-study-intl/index.html