We Have Always Done It That Way

Put yourself in this scenario: As part of a strategic effort to better position members in the marketplace, your association prioritizes development of a toolkit to guide members in promoting themselves and their expertise. An author is commissioned and months later she presents the document. You have it copy-edited. You have it beautifully designed. It’s ready to go to print. Proudly, you send the electronic proof to the individuals involved in the toolkit’s conceptualization. The unexpected feedback: it’s way off mark and will likely end up in member trash cans.

What went wrong? The document is written so well, it’s comprehensive, it’s beautiful, it’s on deadline. All excellent…except that the final product does not meet its intended purpose. The author’s specialized expertise steered the content too far in one direction.

We could talk about how this happened and how to prevent future occurrences, but that’s an issue for another time. My question now is “What would you do?” 1. Proceed. It is, after all, a well-written document with some useful information and you had planned to distribute it at the upcoming conference. 2. Have the author quickly add a few of the concepts originally discussed so that it’s a little bit closer to that intended and still meets your deadline. 3. Postpone distribution and go back to the drawing board to create the originally planned and strategically conceptualized product.

Would you be willing to start over? Or would you be tempted to deliver a mediocre product on deadline? When does getting it done become more important than getting it done right?

By the way, in real life, the association followed path 2 and I’m sure the landfills are fuller for it.

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