In my previous post I wrote about one of the two most
useful and important pieces of wisdom that had ever been shared with me. The
title of this post represents the other.
It is a quotation from Voltaire translated as "The
perfect is the enemy of the good", or "The best is the enemy of the good." It came to me stated a little differently, as
an admonition: "Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good." That is how I remember it, and strive to put
it into practice. President Geoff Gamble
of Montana State University shared it with me in this form, shortly after he
arrived from the University of Vermont in 2001. I was the interim provost at the time. Geoff was a terrific mentor and the eight years we worked together were
very productive and even fun (most of the time).
Geoff’s
point, and presumably Voltaire’s, was that a single-minded insistence on
perfection (or on getting exactly what you define as a perfect outcome) may be (and frequently is) counter-productive. Perfection is nearly
always unattainable. One can pitch a
perfect game, or receive a perfect score, occasionally experience a “perfect
day”, but that’s about it. Recognizing
the wisdom of “never let the perfect be the enemy of the good” in no way
precludes us from setting high goals and striving for excellence. In my experience,
I have found this maxim to be consistently valuable in devising strategies to
achieve ambitious goals, in implementing those strategies, and in assessing
progress.
The
central question then becomes: “Is this a step in the right direction?” Any particular outcome may fall well short of
our ultimate goal, but if it has moved us forward along the path to achieving
the goal, then we should recognize that progress and focus on planning and
executing the next step that would advance us further.
The
University of Rhode Island is just completing its 17th Diversity
Week, and our efforts towards building a diverse community are a timely example
how “never let the perfect be the enemy of the good” can work effectively in
practice. Our goal is to build a broadly diverse community where every member
is welcomed, affirmed, respected, and supported. If we could achieve that for every member of
our community every day, it would indeed be perfect, I think. We are far short of achieving such an
outcome. It is useful to frequently
remind ourselves that we have a lot more work to do – you can’t solve a problem
until you admit it exists – and the Diversity Week program provided many such useful
moments. But the speakers, panels, and performances also provided many, many
examples of progress: of good things already achieved and of ambitious efforts
to forge ahead towards our goal.
Thank
you to all who planned and facilitated this year’s program, to all those who
participated, and all those who support the University of Rhode Island’s
efforts to build an inclusive, caring community.
