"Good enough is good enough.''
-- attributed to several different Gannett publishers and employees, in reader comments on my post about how Corporate grades you and your boss. Who was the first to say it, and under what circumstances?
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Mystery: Which executive coined this phrase?
-- attributed to several different Gannett publishers and employees, in reader comments on my post about how Corporate grades you and your boss. Who was the first to say it, and under what circumstances?
21 comments:
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This supposed comment mystifies me.
ReplyDeleteI guess in the world of get-something-up-on-the-Web-RIGHT-NOW-and-if-it's-wrong-we'll-fix-it-later, that "good enough" might make some sense. Maybe. It does seem to apply to most newspaper online videos. But what a dismal management tool.
This post could be better but you know what? it's good enough.
This "good enough" term showed up simultaneously at pretty much all GCi locations at the same time the "local information center" dropped in.
ReplyDeleteThis is one more example that makes it obvious from the reports around the country that local pubs and eds have been reading scripts handed from on high at GCi at least since the LCI idea was unleashed.
Just remember: Whatever your boss tells you about the Next Big Idea is not your boss' idea. They're saying whatever they're told to say.
Here's the latest: Watch for a wave of "bring back hard news" or "First Amendment rules" speeches.
I can only imagine how badly the company will tumble when managers combine "RIGHT NOW---if it's wrong we'll fix it later," with the "bring hard news" emphasis. The two don't mix.
ReplyDeleteNews organizations ain't got nothing if they ain't got credibility.
It came from Palm Springs
ReplyDeleteActually, I think it came from the Innovation Group, or whatever they're called within GCI, and they got it from IDEO, an innovation consultant company.
ReplyDeleteWe did "innovation" training and the term was used repeatedly. Specifically that it is ok to put something out there and then let readers/customers tell you how to change it. Their belief is that you are going to go through all sorts of changes on a product anyway, so why not get it out there when it's "good enough" and let the end user tell you how it needs to be changed.
IDEO. Look it up.
Actually, the "good enough" concept isn't a Gannett thing at all. It spun out of the Newspaper Next project run by API. Gannett just adapted it in their own transformation process.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newspapernext.org/2007/09/some_thoughts_about_good_enoug.htm
The problem with "good enough is good enough" is who judges what is "good enough."
ReplyDeleteIf you have a group of professionals striving for the best then the "good enough" will probably be just that.
If you have people in the newsroom like the guy at the next desk from me "good enough" means "it's time to go home and I have the 'good enough' excuse for anything anyone finds wrong with it."
I believe customers (readers and advertisers) ultimately decide what's good enough.
ReplyDeleteThat comment, or a similar one, was used by then-publisher Barbara Henry in Indy. It replaced our previous mantra, "Knowledge is power." Don't need no knowledge no more, just have the general public write stories and git 'er done!
ReplyDelete1:11PM wrote:I believe customers (readers and advertisers) ultimately decide what's good enough.
ReplyDeleteWith the decine in circulation and advertising revenue, I think they already have spoken, and the message is falling of deaf ears.
Are you all still writing stories?
ReplyDeleteI'm doing videos now. I started with a "good enough" approach -- letting readers modify my work on their terms -- and now my videos get thousands of hits.
Seriously ... writing is No. 3 in my world these days. Blog first. Video second.
Love vidoes. Love blogs like this one.
ReplyDeleteBut when I visit Gannet sites, I want news.
Seriously...news is number 1. in my world these days. Click on news sites for news first. Go to Gannettblog for more news, then find high quality, newsy videos. (Hint----I don't find them on Gannett sites.)
I can tell you for a fact that "good enough" came from Palm Springs and that it was not meant for new stories but overall strategies and products. I have the powerpoint somewhere. We presented in Phoenix at the first Grand May Tour and then SCJ and company took the concept and repeated it at other meetings. Again, it was not meant for news.
ReplyDeleteIt was designed to help speed up the processes for new products. So instead of over analyzing something, get it to "good enough" get it out and improve to as we went forward. So the concept was and is good and should not be applied to news content.
Palm Springs was one of the Newspaper Next test sites, which is why many people think of "good enough" as a Gannett idea. Sorry it rains on the parade of the folks here who can't wait to bitch and moan about anything Gannett, but this idea you can blame on API and the Harvard "innovation" genius who developed the programme for news media at their behest. Gannett was just along for the ride.
ReplyDeleteAnd for those who think this relatively new concept is what's caused the demise of newspapers, you haven't been paying attention. Jim Squires predicted this scenario quite clearly in his book on corporate journalism more than 10 years ago.
Blaming anyone won't fix the problem, will it?
ReplyDeleteWho is going to communicate this miscommunication and clue everyone in that "good enough" doesn't cut it when it comes to news reporting?
8:33 that's exactly the problem. When you try to get across to the higher-ups that "good enough" isn't good enough for the readers, that they're telling us over and over again on the streets and in our own forums how bad we are, somewhere, someone's gotta listen. Unfortunately, when you try to tell your supervisors that something isn't working, that time/thought need to be invested, that you have ideas on how to do it better, you're a complainer and a whiner and a troublemaker.
ReplyDeleteGannett doesn't want problem-solvers. They want sheep.
The latest catch phrase at our paper is "core (daily newspaper) is irrelevant."
ReplyDeleteI heard a variation of it from Lane Michaelson and Harvey Mars during video training, "Better done than good."
ReplyDeleteI don't know where the phrase came from. I just know that my paper uses it as an excuse to hurry up and get the paper done and lose more readers. Our publisher, who we're pretty sure doesn't read the paper, told us in a meeting awhile ago that "Sometimes it just has to be good enough."
ReplyDeleteThat's a terrible attitude, and it's ruining this paper.
"Good enough is good enough"
ReplyDeleteAny credible management expert - Drucker, Deming and Welch - would hurl in the face of any executive who promoted such rubbish.
A lot of people hear that from our HR Director in Brevard. She'll smile at you and stab you in the back when you turn around. She's good!
ReplyDelete