S'mores
SteveThe best ingredients, when carefully combined, arranged into appealing combinations, and allowed to come together into a cohesive and improved manner can often result in fantastic accomplishment.
S'MORES - Pamela Michelle Johnson
Whether it is the inputs to a multi-part process, the components of a product, or the individual steps that lead to a desired outcome - almost all the work we do (unless you are a solitary artist of some kind), involves us contributing our efforts and work towards some larger or greater goal.
And truly, if the individual contributions are not of high quality, delivered on time, and often consistently repeatable, then certainly the overall product or service or project will suffer, and possibly fail. So, thusly we focus, heads-down on our pieces, making sure that ultimately we feel proud of our effort, knowing if the end goals are not actually met, well, it was not our fault. Which is sort of comforting to a point. You can only control what you can control right?
But the real consumers of the product, be they end users, employees, customers, or fans - they are less concerned with the relative quality of the various components (if they can even acknowledge at all the process), they only care about the end results.
The S'more is either good or it isn't. No kid has ever been handed a S'more and commented, 'The marshmallow is good, melted nicely, but I think the chocolate is a little off, and I give the graham cracker only a 'meets expectations'.
You can get pretty far in the world making the 'best' graham crackers, but what kids remember are the best S'mores.
Happy Weekend everyone!
Picture Credit - 'S'mores' by Pamela Michelle Johnson, oil on canvas - to learn more about Ms. Johnson's work visit here
Reader Comments (4)
you had me at s'mores.* the trick is in pulling the ingredients together so they work and don't compete.
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*i have been known to kvetch about the chocolate's melting ability to taste trade-offs.
They are even better when made with Reese's PB cups instead of Hersey's. Heresy, I know, but true anyway.
Great point Steve. At a time when many people are having annual reviews, its a good reminder that while individual performance is important, the accountability to have a result for the business is what matters ultimately.
You can tell Dwane is a continuous improvement guy. Couldn't leave well enough alone. Darn good trait to have, or we wouldn't have PB cups in the first place.
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