In various seminars, webinars, group meetings I have heard speakers exhort us to strive for perfection, zero defects, etc., etc. Repeating the words “continuous improvement” as if they were a sacred mantra.

It is hard to argue with this logic, right? It’s about the journey and not the destination, right? Well what about the old adage “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it?” That sure seems to make sense as well. So, which is it? Of course, you know that the answer is “it depends.” As if our lives as managers weren’t hard enough now we have to distinguish between two trite phrases so that we know what to do next.

If time and money were not problems then we would always opt to improve everything. But time and money are always problems so we much learn how to choose. Basically it comes down to a matter of degree, a matter of priorities, a matter of information. It requires us as managers to review processes and procedures on a regular basis. It requires us to solicit feedback from our employees on a regular basis. It requires us to know what our competition is doing and what new ideas and technologies are now available to us.

Over the years I have seen several organizations change their priorities based on new information from employees. One manufacturing organization had already budgeted and scheduled a series of training programs for their production workers. These programs were not mission critical, but were designed to encourage employee skill enhancement. Now there is certainly nothing wrong with this, but an employee survey revealed that this was one of the lowest priorities for their employees at this time. The money could be better spent on upgrading employee benefits.

And while it may be about the journey, we need to know where we are headed. Without a well-defined organizational mission and vision and without knowing how our group fits in with the big picture we cannot even begin to know if something is broken or not. We must let our employees know where we are going and ask them to help us get there.