Padma was very excited as she wanted to share with everyone about the lecture she heard in her office today. It was all about completing activities a hundred per cent. Roads are repaired but edges are not done and heaps of mud line up the sides of the road, construction of house is over but furnishing is going on for ever and IT projects, it sometimes takes a very short time to get to 99 per cent but the last 1 per cent probably takes 99 per cent of time. It is like a mountain trek where the last mile is the steepest.
Kaushik was listening intently and chipped in, “Do you see a similarity of this in Bridge? Every bridge hand which is written in newspaper columns or given as a puzzle is always one trick short of the goal.” The discussion then took off on how to do we get to complete things completely with not an item pending.
Kingo, the marketing guy said, “Easy in projects. You don’t get paid till customer says it Is 100 per cent completed”. Prabha was waiting to say something and asked is it really required to complete things when 99 per cent will suffice”. Everyone shook their head in disagreement and Kaushik retorted asking, “Is it OK to go one down on every contract you bid in Bridge and still expect to win a tournament?”
Padma asked the most pertinent question, “What do we do to move from 99 per cent to 100 per cent”? Kaushik had a studious look and said, “The key is to learn from your past mistakes and never repeat them again. Building a knowledge base of errors, items to be done before an activity is completed fully is very important”. Padma wanted to share metrics – We have been classifying errors as bidding, declarer play, defence and unforced errors in our play analysis. If we can just cut down on bidding and unforced errors we will easily get to making most contracts we bid and winning more often.”
The discussion veered off into quality management and how we must get to six sigma level and things like that but the concurrence was to make an error list so that we can avoid making the same mistake again, making a checklist of things to be done before it is hundred per cent done and more important is to develop an attitude that we are not happy with 99 per cent completion. If you feel that this is important to complete the task fully, you will strive to achieve Excellence and not just completion.
Tailpiece: Goofy was biting hard to finish his bone 100 per cent. He growled, “I am focussing on what is remaining and not what is done”. If you guys also focus on what is the remaining 1 per cent than showing off the 99 per cent complete, this syndrome will vanish
