Has Seth Godin contridicted himself?
6.24.2009 | Blog
So I have been discussing “Good Enough” for a few posts here in June on ShawnWoodWrites, and then Seth Godin wrote this post, to which a few people pointed me.
As I read that post and thought about what Seth was saying (and what all of you, who were quick to point it out, think he was saying), I realized I had two choices:
Either Seth would define “mediocrity” not as a lack of excellence, but rather a lack of effectiveness,
OR
Seth Godin was contradicting himself.
I think Seth is too smart to contradict himself, so I am going to side with choice #1.
Read this post by Seth on how a “good enough” hand-written sign was actually the most effective thing that could be done.
The assumption is too quickly made that “good enough” is mediocre, and that excellence is effective. If that were true, we would not use all those extra words–we would just say, “Be excellent.” But the truth is, sometimes a “good enough” hand-written sign is mediocre and sometimes it is effective.
Are there examples in your ministry where “good enough” has been, well…good enough?
6.24.2009
I think you’re misinterpreting what he meant in the post about the sign. It wasn’t an example of doing just “good enough”, it was excellence; excellence specifically crafted to look haphazard. The safety sign is handwritten to give it a human element and that goes a long way to connecting with people. It looks sloppy, but the strategy and execution are excellent.
6.24.2009
I appreciate what your saying, but you kinda prove my point. People have started to translate “excellence” as “effective”. That sign was 100% effective but not even close to excellent. Excellence would have been to have one professionally printed and done “right”. If we simply define excellence as “effective” then I guess I can buy what you are selling, but that seems to then leave determining the value of excellence as a situational issue. I would just submit that in this case (and I honestly doubt that the driver was being as strategic as you think) a handmade sign was “good enough” BECAUSE it was more effective.
6.24.2009
I guess there’s a lot of factors in play there. Who makes the decision to post that sign? Is it the driver? Is it the company? Why do they decide to use that sign? Is it a cost thing? Is it a strategy thing?
In his post, Seth is operating under the assumption that it is a specific strategy decision. He’s saying that it’s an excellent strategy. The sign is supposed to look bad, so it is excellent at looking awful.
So, to answer the titular question, no, I don’t believe Seth Godin contradicted himself.