Over the past months I've enjoyed volunteering each morning building a house with my local Habitat for Humanity. The schedule is a bit odd, as they work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, 7am till noon. We started on this house the week of October 3rd with 2 weeks of their women's build " Heels to Hammers" with a slab. As of writing this we now have 2 stories built with all interior walls framed, trusses set, roof is on, windows are in and almost all siding is complete.
With all volunteers, (and only working 4 mornings a week)this build is moving pretty quickly. Each day a new batch of volunteers comes in and does what they can to help a family to own their very first home. I have really enjoyed the focus, the fun and the passion of all these people! There is a sense of accomplishment each day, where you can look and physically see the outcome of your effort.
There is, however one thing I am starting to notice, there are a LOT of bent nails. And I mean a LOT.
All of us volunteers are swinging those hammers with gusto, making progress towards a new home for someone else, but many times those attempts at progress mean some bent nails. Sometimes, it may take 3, 4 or 5 attempts to get one nail in place correctly. What's beautiful, is the job foreman response to all these bent nails - is to cheer people on. He realizes no one is an expert nail driver, and even if they were, bent nails happen. Bent nails are a sign of trying, of progress and of learning.
This made me think a lot of organizations/teams and how we view things we try but just don't work out.
Trying
When I contrast a bent nail to a un-used nail, The bent nail represents an attempt. While the new nails may be prettier, they are only representative of potential in the future. So many times I've seen individuals be blocked by fear and never try something. They may have a burning passion for something ( or a new product idea) and yet they don't take a chance and try to see if that idea is good of not. Organizations may want to try a new way of working, only to make little progress or stop before ever getting started. I know I've had my share of attempts at things that didn't work ( and have the bent nails to prove it). Luckily I was surrounded by a team that celebrated trying to do something new, and grew because of it.
Progress
In order to make progress, something must happen. I know this is ridiculous to say, but I've seen time and time where leaders want to move organizations forward while staying the same. In knowledge work, we rarely know with any degree of accuracy what exactly needs to be done/built/changed/delivered. So in order to make progress, things that didn't go well would be evidence of making progress towards a goal. In the pursuit of delivering value, there should be a trail of bent nails. If you aren't willing to have some failures, you aren't really wanting progress.
Learning
It's been said over and over again, but we learn by doing. By making repeated attempts at something and failing, we will get better. Each nail bent is progress towards the goal. Humans need to be able to learn to grow, and this applies to organizations as well. In a recent organization we went through a transformation into a design we all felt was going to be successful, only to learn we were wrong. To be clear, I was wrong. But the beauty was that only after working that way for a few months did the learning begin to happen, and we made serious progress to a organizational design that was far better.
No matter if you are building a product for a customer, responsible for your organizations direction and design, or simply building a home for those in need - enjoy the journey. We all stress far to much trying to be "perfect" when we really need to simply move forward.
Note: I also highly encourage you to spend time giving back to an organization as a volunteer. Please look around your local area for a cause you enjoy and give generously. Yes, give money, but I'd encourage you to give time. The personal returns of physically being present and giving of your time are far greater than only mailing in a check.
