This week in my Bible reading, I was reading in Acts 6 (don’t worry – there’s a business lesson coming soon). I noticed something in Acts 6:2

So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.” – Acts 6:2

Hang on. Waiting on tables, distributing food, serving others – that’s good, right? Yes. But their primary ministry was great. And given finite time and resources, they decided they wouldn’t sacrifice the great for the good.

You: “Cool story, Matt. But where’s the business lesson?”
 

Here it is: Don’t sacrifice the great for the good.

Early in my career I was in product development. I helped oversee our company’s process for moving new products through a pipeline of finite resources to launch out to customers. Along the way, decisions are made as to which products continue to move forward and which products are halted or postponed. And decisions are made as to whether you release a product with all the features the customer wants or just some of those features. And these decisions are based on the finite amount of resources available to move these products through. In all these decisions, trade-offs are made.

Too often, I’ve seen companies make lots of trade-offs in order to push a lot of new products through. They’ll end up spreading five products’ worth of time and resources across ten product launches. And each product ends up halfway meeting the customer’s expectations. Instead of launching out five “great” products they end up launching ten “good” products. Everyone claps each other on the back and congratulates themselves for launching out ten “good” products. But in reality these “good” products are a disappointment to the customer, and the customer likely leaves because they end up getting a half-assed experience. 

(I know. Sorry. I spent 10 minutes researching “what’s a polite way to say ‘half-assed?’” Nothing else works.)

Your team’s always going to face choices between two (or more) good things they want to accomplish. And as much as we’d like to say “yes” to all the good things, we simply can’t.

The reality is, in a world of finite time and resources, every time you say “yes” to one thing you’re saying “no” to something else. If you say “yes” to taking on too many good things, that’s one more “no” in delivering your one great thing.

Even Harvard Business School professor, Michael Porter says, “A strategic position is not sustainable unless there are trade-offs with other positions.” 

Still, I get it. It’s painful to have to say “no” and give up something. So instead of asking, “What can we give up?” turn it around and ask, “What do we want to go big on? What’s our ‘great?’”

Once you decide and commit to your “great” it’s a lot easier to mercilessly cut the rest.

So if you want to really thrive this year make it simple for you and your team. Prune back the “good” so you can focus on delivering the “great.”