Quantity? Quality?

[A] ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups.

All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.

It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

- Ted Orland, in Art & Fear

It’s a story shared a while back on the blog of “writer who draws” Austin Kleon (which is itself worth a read).

So what’s the lesson here for us?

Could it be that putting all your effort into one big campaign is — in the long run — less effective than running a bunch of small campaigns?

Could it be that frequent (even daily) practice in identifying, communicating with, and inspiring your people is — in the long run — more effective than planning “the perfect outreach”?

Could it be that starting with small “test-launch programs” and learning from the results is — in the long run —more effective than waiting until you “know everything there is to know” before launching?

Maybe. What does your experience tell you?

All the best,
A.