Demotivation

“Eddie, these slides are just fine the way they are, you are the only one that has had a problem with them.”

“I think that the people you have showed them to understand the concepts before they see the slides, but we are using these slides to teach people who aren’t familiar with the process and they don’t make much sense, they are all over the place.”

“Belinda has seen the slides and she is a new employee.”

“Well, Belinda understands machines and machine language, I understand people. My point is, I think these slides can be improved upon and I don’t want ‘good enough’ I want them to be ‘the best’.”

“Well, if you have time you can redo them, but we’ve spent so much time on them already I don’t think anyone else will have time to update theirs.”

At this point I went back to my desk and took the 18 slides that seemed to lack cohesion and made them brilliantly simple. I kept all the material and graphics and turned those 18 slides into 3 simple slides. I emailed them to my co-worker who is coordinating this large training project that we are putting together.

“I got your slides, I’m okay with this, they don’t look too different from the others and so you can use them.”

I was more than a little disappointed. I took something that stunk like a big turd and turned it into something that was clear, concise and smelled like a cinnamon bark candle from Bath and Body works. I worked a friggin’ miracle and she said “It’s okay to use them?”

I sent her an email back.

“Have you ever been given a ‘demotivation’ award?”

I’m so tired with everyone thinking things are “good enough” when just a little more creativity and hard work we can have “Awesome” or “Unbelievable”.