Don’t Try Your Best

By Dr. Troy Campbell

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“Don’t Try Your Best” has always been a counterintuitive idea. But, with the rise of distributed work, the lesson has never been more important. Video calls, e-mails, and shared documents are never going to be the places where you get things perfect or “best.” 

Yet, since many companies have a “try your best” or “always impress” mentality, employees are now treating video calls like personal TED Talks, e-mails like multi-page manifestos, and first drafts of shared working documents like final cuts. 

Leaders need to take charge and establish a “Don’t Try Your Best” norm. Honestly, “Don’t Try Your Best” should have always been more of the norm, but, regardless, now is the time to implement this practice.

Now is the time for leaders to dress down in a video message and loudly and proudly make it the norm. Doing so will bring comfort to employees, improve general psychology, and prevent inefficient “try your best” and “always impress” behavior.

Four Examples of Implementing “Don’t Try Your Best” in Distributed Work

The late night hosts recording in their attics. 

These hosts have focused on keeping the jokes top notch, but they have not tried their best to make the video, audio, sets, and even clothing perfect. Lots of times, they have even purposefully ignored fine-tuning some of the audio-video qualities in order to create something that is more relatable for their audiences and more focused on why the audience has shown up: for the “talk” part of the show. 

The professors who are not trying to be perfect.

In a world of low-resolution video lectures, good professors everywhere are dropping the idea of delivering a perfect scripted lecture. That’s not to say they aren’t having some awesome moments. Many are following what we call the “be the best for 5 minutes” principle, wherein the professor delivers some amazing scripted bit or experiential learning for 5 minutes, then the rest of the class is less than perfect, but anchored in that amazing moment. 

The companies embracing “no frill” slides and docs. 

Companies like Netflix, who have for years largely worked in distributed ways, have always embraced “no frill” internal documentation and presentation styles. Now is the time many more companies need to  join in. Another benefit to “no frill” slides is that they are often legitimately more focused  on the necessary information.

The podcast guests and creators who are embracing the improv spirit and not always trying to be clever.  

In the OYF TEDx Talk embedded below, we talk about the improv principle of “don’t always try to be clever.” If a stage improv player tries to think too far ahead or make every single line a banger joke, it just doesn’t work. Today, the entertainers, thinkers, and makers we are used to seeing always be perfect and scripted are streaming and guesting on podcasts where they are not trying to always be clever. They are being present and adequately preparing, but not overdoing what is necessary or possible in the environment. 

Conclusion

To get to the best ideas, especially in situations as tough as this one, we need to learn to not try our best all the time. We can look to these models, follow good “Don’t Try Your Best” theory, and use tools like the OYF’s Distributed Work Tool Kit to find the actual right ways to act right now.