I saw this blog post at Rajesh Setty’s blog about the prevalence of mediocrity. I’ve been following Rajesh for years. He often has great and thought provoking posts so I decided to check it out.

http://www.rajeshsetty.com/2011/10/25/7-reasons-for-the-rise-of-mediocrity/trackback/

After reading I immediately said I wasn’t going to post anything about this.  Even at the behest of my darling wife. But in reading the comments or lack thereof of one specific perspective I figured I might as well be the one to say it.

Why mediocrity?, because we can afford it.  True quality is too expensive at times,  and mediocrity has this unique talent of being able to make budgets work out. When tasked with way too many irons in the fire, many companies will go the “Good Enough” route. Well, we all know the that “Good enough, seldom is.” But when quality demands governance, structure, and personnel; suddenly keeping the lights on looks alot more palatable than disruptive innovation; especially during the brutal economic reality many companies face. But at some point a line in the sand must be drawn. The enemy of mediocrity is courage. Do you have it?

“Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?”

–A Guide to Trial and Error in Government, Bene Gesserit Archives,

Heretics of Dune, Frank Herbert