Progress versus perfection. By Matt Everatt, Editor

PROGRESS Versus PERFECTION

By Matt Everatt I Editor

FEAR OF FAILURE I sat in a clinical lecture recently when the speaker gave us all something to ponder. He put it to the audience that ‘our profession shackles us and teaches us that we cannot and should not accept failures.’ We should always achieve 100% perfection each and every time we treat patients. In Dentistry, we have to fix things, we are made to feel we have to give a 100% guarantee with every piece of clinical or technical work we do. Should the restoration fail, or the tooth has to be removed, the clinician or technician feels a degree of responsibility. I won’t even begin to discuss the fear of litigation when a failure occurs.

In no other profession is this acceptable or achievable. Consider our medical colleagues; when they prescribe medication, they will list a million potential side effects and will almost certainly always suggest ‘we will try this first’. Accountants don’t guarantee that the HMRC won’t come knocking for more. Lawyers would never give a 100% guarantee on winning a case in court. So why do so many of us, in our profession, see anything other than perfection as a failure?

On the whole I would say in our profession we have a pretty unhealthy relationship with failure.

Failures give us an opportunity to learn. Failures can help us diagnose what went wrong and what could potentially go wrong and help us better understand the success of a process or action more so than trying to analyse what elements may have led to the success of the process or action.

Clearly there are some mistakes that are costlier than others and we should not confuse failures with negligence. It is important to readjust our mindset in regards to mistakes and failures and it is critically important to distinguish between negligence and failure.

The culture in our profession is that we must always produce perfection. Is perfection even possible? The minute we think we have nailed it, something new pops up, or a colleague produces an amazing piece of work that you immediately judge yourself against. In an online article, Dr Jessica Zucker writes “Perfection is not possible”. She goes onto say that research has discovered that those individuals that live their lives with the mission of perfection can suffer greatly with depression, anxiety, or body image dissatisfaction.

Is it not surprising that we see so many of our peers within our profession struggle on a daily basis seeking the panacea of perfection. Our exposure to Social Media can only make those feeling inadequate when it comes to seeking to perfect themselves or their work. According to The National Archives, Dentists and Healthcare occupations are amongst the highest in terms of mortality from suicide. Could this daily struggle be contributing to the negative impact on the mental health on ourselves and our colleagues?

WHY IS GOOD ENOUGH, NOT ENOUGH? Actually ‘Good Enough is Enough!’ as honourable as it is that we strive for perfection, as long as we aren’t negligent, ‘good enough’ is just fine. Negligence happens when a task is undertaken without effort and attention to detail. I think most, if not all of us undertake our tasks as professionals with great effort and best intentions. Mistakes and failures happen, it’s a given, we are only human! Failures and mistakes are actually brilliant opportunities to learn. Failure is when a project does not turn out as we hoped it would, despite our best effort, we make progress and we improve.

PERFECTION PARALYSIS This is a term I have heard a lot just recently whilst listening to one of my favourite speakers Mel Robbins, a motivational speaker, author and regular TEDx speaker sums up this struggle we have with attaining perfection beautifully. She talks of ‘Perfection Paralysis’. The fear of not being perfect prevents us from progressing.

I have seen an area of my own business suffer from Perfection Paralysis. We were looking to create or purchase some software to replace our old production planning and accounting system. We spent far too long seeking perfection that we spent nigh on 5 years looking for something that didn’t exist. By the time we bit the bullet to ‘just do it’, our old system had grown to an unstable point where we couldn’t migrate with our preferred system. It led to a further 2 years of development and we still aren’t finished yet! It was a costly exercise to seek perfection, it cost us almost 7 years in time, let alone the staff hours put into this project.

“Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.”

Salvador Dali

Perfection /pəˈfɛkʃ(ə)n/

- the action or process of improving something until it is faultless.

Progress /ˈprəʊɡrɛs/

- development towards an improved or more advanced condition.

PRACTICE MAKES PROGRESS Practice makes Progress! I know that’s not the correct saying! Practice make perfect, and I don’t buy this anymore! The constant internal battles we have aiming to seek perfection can sometimes stifle innovation and development, inevitably preventing progress.

On my search for material on perfection I have stumbled upon several great quotes and one liners that I hope will help us all to think twice when we begin to feel inadequate when we have achieved short of perfection. Don’t let the fear of being anything less than perfect prevent you making progress. Be bold, be willing to listen to feedback, do not take anything personal, it is all progress.

Perfection is exhausting. Progress is invigorating.

Perfection focuses on what's not working, the flaws, the not-enoughs, the old paradigms.

Progress looks at what is working, the improvements, the discoveries, the ‘eureka’ moments that come from the realisation of looking at things from a new perspective.

Perfection is bound by time.

Progress doesn't measure time because it's right now and endless. It's a journey of the right-now and, the next.