Good Enough Is a Standard, Not an Excuse

Voltaire wrote, "Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." The best is the enemy of the good.

Most people remember it as "perfection is the enemy of good enough." Either way, the point holds up in construction better than almost anywhere else.

Nobody builds a perfect building

There's no such thing as a perfect drawing set. There's no such thing as a perfect schedule, or a perfect bid, or a job that goes exactly to plan. Anyone who has worked a project knows that.

But there's a trap on both sides.

On one side, you chase perfect. You check the same sheet five times, wait for one more revision, hold the order until every question is answered. Meanwhile the job moves without you.

On the other side, you let "good enough" turn into "whatever gets it out the door." Nobody checks. Nobody owns it. And that's how a $150,000 mistake slips through.

Good enough has to be decided

Here's the part people skip. Good enough isn't a feeling. It's a line you draw on purpose, before the work starts.

What has to be right every time? What can be fixed later without hurting anyone? Who checks it, and when?

If you don't decide that, someone else decides it for you. Usually it's the deadline.

What this means for drawing review

We built MarkedUp with this in mind. We're not promising a perfect read of every drawing. Nobody honestly can.

What we can do is make sure every set gets a first look, every time, so the obvious misses don't make it to the field. A missing door tag. A schedule that doesn't match the plan. A detail that points to a sheet that isn't there.

Then a person still decides. That's the standard. A consistent check, followed by someone who knows the job making the call.

One millwork firm we work with went from 5 hours of plan checking to 17 minutes. That isn't perfect. It's good enough to change how their week goes.

Set your standard

Perfect will keep you waiting. Careless will cost you. Good enough, decided on purpose and held to every time, is how good teams get work done.

So decide what good enough means for your team, write it down, and hold yourselves to it.

If you want help making drawing review part of that standard, talk to us at markedup.io.