The Pursuit of Even Better

Four Benefits of Promoting a Culture of Even Better

Here at Your Clear Next Step, we have long believed in and practiced creating a culture of even better. What is that? Well, it is the relentless pursuit of continuous improvement. It is a cultural and organization-wide acknowledgment that we have both the desire and the ability to make today even better than yesterday, tomorrow even better than today. We apply it to our processes, our communications, our customer interactions, our courseware, and, pretty much, everything else we do.

It turns out promoting a culture of “even better” produces some remarkable benefits. It is something that, when done well, others notice, comment on, and appreciate. Of course, it has its challenges, but first let’s explore some of the key benefits.

1. Self-Awareness

In a culture that promotes even better, we make a habit of continually reflecting on the job we are doing. We are constantly thinking about how we can perform our tasks, complete our work, or satisfy our customers even better. Often, we’ll pause after completing something to reflect on what has just happened. Other times, we’ll stop in the moment to be sure we are on the right track and look for ways to improve.

A culture of even better creates a process by which we evaluate and consider our actions. We become more aware of how we talk to each other, how we communicate, and how we might come across to others. Almost by default, self-awareness gets daily practice in a culture of even better.

2. Humility

The reality is egos can’t get over-inflated if, at every turn, we’re stopping to realize the thing we just did was not the best that it could be. It’s hard to be overly prideful when we realize the next time we go at this, we can try something a little different or do it a little better. A culture of even better prevents us from getting complacent, lazy, or too confident that we’ve mastered any given approach.

I want to pause here to offer one word of warning. When we’re always looking for even better, it can be difficult to be proud of the things that deserve pride. It can be difficult to recognize a job well done if we're always looking for a job done even better next time. It’s just as important to stop, recognize, and celebrate good work when it’s done, as it is to look for ways to improve next time. It’s possible to take pride in what we’ve done AND look for ways to do it even better next time. It’s important we do both.

3. Resilience

So many people struggle with criticism or correction. This is true of those who tend towards insecure, those who are natural perfectionists, those who strive for approval from others, and those who have an innate desire to be the best or to outshine the competition.

So many of us fall into one or more of these camps, and correction can be crazy-hard to take. But when we are a part of a culture of even better, we are a part of a culture that promotes an acknowledgement that what we did is not a reason to be unhappy or a reason to be dissatisfied.  When together we can look at that moment and agree to do something better next time, we actually create an environment in which giving and receiving feedback is so much safer and easier. I don’t have to imagine that you don't value me or that I've somehow failed because you’ve asked me to do something differently next time. I simply know that you’ve offered an approach to make next time even better for me, for you, and for all of us.

4. Authenticity.

Among the characteristics we seek out in our leaders are authenticity and candor. We want our leaders to be candid about their successes and authentic about the work it took to get them there. We want our leaders to be authentic about who they are and candid about their own shortcomings or imperfections.

When we promote a culture of even better, we are promoting an ability for all of us to candidly and authentically talk about the work we are doing, what has worked well, and what hasn’t. That authenticity frees us from pretending to be perfect or having everything all figured out at any given moment. Instead, authenticity allows us to be honestly and willingly engaged in a process by which things get better on a daily, if not hourly, basis. I can talk about growth, my own and that of others. I can coach others forward as they encounter opportunities that stretch them further than they’ve ever stretched before. I can keep myself and my leadership team out of the harm of complacency when we are authentic and candid about our own need and our own ability to keep getting better.

Of course, all these little benefits add up to one great, big benefit. The reality is, when we’re all working together in an organization where we’ve all adopted a culture of even better, we get better as an organization. We see the continuous improvement. We see incremental improvements in a whole variety of areas – communications, operations, customer satisfaction, product development. Across the board, a culture of even better reduces errors, improves net bottom line results, and generally includes an uptick in client satisfaction.

So, what are you going to do to adopt a culture of even better where you are?