Following on from yesterday’s post featuring “lowest common denominators,” I was once assigned to a project in which “flawless execution” was a stated requirement.

Not a goal, or a vision, or something to strive for – there it was in black and white, right in the requirements document: Fail to execute flawlessly and we may as well not have bothered even showing up.

If I could have gotten away with just walking out immediately then I would have. Instead I snidely commented that I’ve never done anything flawlessly before, so I was excited to start.

Everyone stared at me blankly for thirty seconds and then we all moved on to the next item on the agenda.