No room for failure

Like most working folks, producing stuff is one of my duties. For me, it's generally thought-stuff. Thought-stuff of varied structure (emails, memos, diagrams, charts, spreadsheets, presentations), size (1 to 100 pages) and difficulty (so how does one measure difficulty?).

Also like most working folks, I communicate with people about stuff. Sometimes about their stuff... and sometimes about my stuff.

Often a presenter (of work product) starts being apologetic about the work product before the reviewer has even had a chance to look at it. I have often heard, "Oh, this is just something that I slammed together." The implication being that he/she didn't work on it very hard and that is why it will be found unacceptable.

I think that regardless of whether or not this is true, such a half-baked apology shouldn't be made. That is, if it in't true... then why are you saying it? And if it is true... then you should be truly apologetic that you are presenting something that is known to be fundamentally deficient.

What is the person doing? Trying to show that there was an opening through which failure could creep. The problem is that failure tends to be the sort of thing that expands to fill the space available.

I've often heard it said that one "leave no room for failure"... and I think I'm understanding that meaning a little deeper... It's often (tough not always) the absence of effort that leaves room for failure.

So I'll try to fill up my tasks with effort... to leave no room for failure.