Satisficing is the new maximizing
One of my biggest strengths is also one of my biggest weaknesses.
According to Gallup StrengthsFinder, I’m a Maximizer. That means that anytime I work on something, I want to make it the best it can possibly be. I’ll look at something that’s already pretty good and do whatever I can to make it great.
But there can be a big downside to this strength: I struggle with knowing when to stop maximizing or when something doesn’t need to be maximized at all. I always see ideas and ways to make something better—and it can drive my team (and myself!) nuts.
I’ve definitely grown a lot in this area. I’ve tried to be more intentional about whether my maximizing of something will dramatically change the output or the end result. Sometimes it will, but often, the answer is not really. I’ve also tried to adopt the mindset that if something is 70% there, it’s good enough, and holding onto it will only delay progress.
Where I still struggle with maximizing is in making decisions—and especially if those decisions will have an impact on other people. For example, I recently decided to start a new project. After I announced it to our team and got the ball rolling, I started to feel like the timing wasn't right and that we should pause the project (I wrote all about it here). But instead of immediately following my gut, I let things move forward while I continued to ruminate because I wanted to be absolutely sure that choosing to pause was, in fact, the right and most perfect decision.
I was so unsure of what to do that I sought an answer in books. I happened to pick up one called Anatomy of a Breakthrough, and that’s where I learned about something called “satisficing.”
Satisficing is the key to escaping the perfectionism trap. It’s about letting go of the perfect decision and making peace with an acceptable one. Instead of waiting however long it takes to find the best outcome possible, satisficing is about making the best decision you can make within a certain time frame.
In the book, the author uses the example of shopping for a new car. There are so many kinds of cars out there, right? If you set out to find the best, most perfect one for you, you might be looking for forever! This is where satisficing comes in: You could speed up and simplify the process by making a list of three of the most important features you desire in a car and giving yourself one week to find the best one that meets your criteria.
With satisficing in mind, I gave myself a deadline for making a decision on whether to continue with the project. And in the end, I chose to pause it. While I couldn’t be sure if it was the best and most perfect decision, I knew it was the best decision I could make within that time frame. Just making the decision brought me immense relief. I was glad I made a choice instead of waiting for all of the conditions to feel perfect.
What I'm learning as a leader is that there are times when it makes sense to maximize and times when it makes sense to satisfice. And often, it makes more sense to satisfice than it does to maximize.
After I finished reading Anatomy of a Breakthrough, I thought about the areas of my life where it feels okay to satisfice and the ones where it feels important to maximize. When it comes to people on my team, for example, I am always going to be a maximizer there. I always want our trust, our culture, and our relationships to be the best they can be. I never want to settle for “good enough” there.
But in so many other cases, it makes sense to settle. I am only one person, and I only have so much time. With certain decisions and projects, it’s better to give myself a deadline, make the best choice or do the best work I can with the time I have, and let it be. Oftentimes, done is better than perfect.
A hard lesson I’ve had to learn about maximizing is that usually, other people are not expecting us to maximize. Maximizers put that on ourselves. If we ever want to break the habit, we have to give ourselves permission to accept “good enough.”
So now, I’ll ask you: How often do you maximize? How often do you satisfice? Where do you think it makes sense to maximize? Where do you think it makes sense to satisfice? How can you give yourself permission to satisfice more often?
Whether or not you’re a maximizer, I hope you can see how freeing it can be to give yourself permission to satisfice. Let’s release ourselves from the pressure of feeling like we need to maximize every decision and every project and focus on doing the best we can with the time we have.
Big hugs,
