Doing more with less
Even the most well-funded organization has to face the reality of limited resources.
For small organizations, that reality is even more critical.
And though it's tempting to try to build solutions that will be “perfect forever,” the trick to doing more with less is understanding that “perfect forever” is not actually a requirement.
My friend Wendy is not a professional seamstress, but she volunteered to create costumes for her church’s upcoming Christmas musical.
Her big challenge: a breakaway tuxedo for an on-stage quick change.
It's the kind of thing that has to work right, every time. And she heard all kinds of advice about how to make it foolproof.
But she was smart.
Her time is limited, and this is not the only thing she has to do.
So she started with a design that she thought was good enough, even though it might not have been completely foolproof. (You know, she used double-stick tape in some places instead of hand-stitching.)
The result?
Her “good enough” design was actually good enough!
As a bonus, her team did another smart thing: at rehearsals last night, they tested the live quick-change more than they would actually use the costume. There are 4 performances; they live-tested this thing 9 times. It’s definitely good enough.
Wendy could have spent twice as much time and effort on that costume. And the practical value of that increased effort would have been exactly zero percent.
Here’s the thing:
When you’ve got a new workflow, new feature set, or new campaign coming up, it’s wise to reason out all of the possible challenges.
But there’s a point at which increased investment (time, effort, expense, stress, delay) will have limited real-world value to your people and your mission.
Doing more with less requires a willingness to recognize when your solution is “probably good enough,” to implement some reasonable testing, and then to move forward.
“Perfect forever” is not only unattainable, it’s also just not needed. What is needed is decisive action.
All the best,
A.