“Everything can get better.”

A thought by John C. Maxwell from his book, Leadershift (p. 111). HarperCollins Leadership. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

And we want that, don’t we?

John says, “You’ve probably heard the expression, ‘It doesn’t get any better than this.’ Well, I have news for you. It can get better. Everything can get better. And as leaders, we should be catalysts for improvement. We need to champion the idea expressed by poet James Russell Lowell, who said, ‘Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but making something out of it after it is found.’”

John goes on, “I have a process for making things better that I use with my team. I call it 10-80-10. Whenever we start on a task or project, the first thing I do is identify the target, which represents approximately 10 percent of the process. So, the first 10 of 10-80-10 focuses on knowing what we want to accomplish. After all, how can I find what I don’t know that I’m looking for? This sets up the next part of the process, which is the 80 percent. The focus here is production. Now that the task has been set in the right direction, the team finds the way to execute it. Sometimes they have to try things out, practice different approaches, find out what works.”

He continues, “I’ve observed that when most teams reach this point, the leader is done. However, there’s still one more step to take things to a whole new level. This is the final 10 in 10–80–10. This last 10 percent is like putting the cherry on top. Once the team has the strategy and process down and everything’s working, I see if there’s a way to make it even better.”

He then says, “Can we take an idea to the next level? Can we target a message even more sharply? Can we make a client’s experience even better? Can we add something to an event to make it spectacular? Is there anything important that the rest of the team didn’t see because they were too far into the weeds and didn’t have perspective? What can we do to go the extra mile? This phase is where great innovation often occurs, and we are able to maximize ideas. It’s also the reason we as a team are so often able to exceed expectations.”

And that is what we want, isn’t it? 

Yes, yes!