Excuses v Excellence – Choose One
Yesterday I was scanning to prepare to audit a legacy record set with federal compliance implications. Less then one/third was collected by me. The other two/thirds plus were collected by position predecessors – those that came before my arrival.
There were minor administrivial errors that quickly became a trend. Forms not dated, mandatory field entries not made, signatures in wrong places, stuff just done wrong. I could have easily gotten by with correcting, dating and initialing ad nasuem, and then thought some more. (Truth be told, I did what I do best – I slept on it.) Each error by itself is materially insignificant. The accumulation and trend of repetitive errors is a material defect that cannot stand.
I am now responsible for completeness and compliance. If I excuse and allow the trend to remain obvious to the casual scan, I have chose rationalization over excellence.
So why not take the time to add value and integrity back into the data set. The company that I works for thrives on precision. This precision mentality needs to dominate all that we do.
Chose the high road, not the easy road.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle
