Process Over Outcome

My father likes to talk about being the best. Whatever you do, he says, be the best. If you choose to wash windows, be the best window washer. If you are not striving to be the best, he believes, you have a critical moral deficiency.  

There are two ways to seek being the best. One is to outperform the competition, which is the classic perspective held by many in business. Business is a game of struggle against others, and the outcome is all that matters. The problem with this perspective is that achievement is only assessed relative to competitors, which present a sliding scale over which you have no control. In the service business, if the quality of the competition is poor, how meaningful is it to be slightly better, if you are still mediocre?

A better perspective, in my opinion, is to seek continual inward improvement of the small tasks (or processes) that make up what we collectively call work. If we reverse engineer our work, we see that it is merely a series of specific tasks performed again and again. Thus to be the best inwardly requires seeking more thoughtful, efficient, and idealized ways to perform each task. Was that the best email? Did I conduct the best possible meeting? Could that clinical study report have been developed in a better manner? What even is the best process for developing a clinical study report anyway?

Ultimately, being the best inwardly is about putting quality at the center of every task you perform. This is what we do at Acumen – work intentionally and assiduously toward best practices. When you look inwardly and challenge yourself to perform each task intelligently and deliberately, meaning is infused into everything, no matter how small and menial the task. With this perspective, one never becomes the best at anything … just continually focused on performing tasks well.    

Although the inward practice of seeking best practices might be a little off target to my father, who is all about winning and competition, the results often speak for themselves.   

Justin McLaughlin

CEO & Co-Founder