I like applying personal development and coaching concepts to my work as a software developer and as the director of the department I lead.
Either we spend our time theorizing, musing, and reading about this and that (and probably filling our heads with lots of information), or we try to integrate all of it into action—into our everyday lives and the things we do. If we don’t, I think we’re wasting our time, unless we treat that avalanche of information as simple entertainment. You can read a wonderful book about anything—for instance, this one, which I’m currently absorbed in, about lean methodology in user experience—but if you don’t apply what you read, you’ll never gain real knowledge.
Knowledge comes from applying what you’ve learned. We often confuse genuine knowledge (experience) with being completely overloaded with information, which keeps us from truly focusing on or exploring anything in depth.
I’m afraid we spend too much time filling our cups with useless information and too little time gaining the real knowledge that’s useful and practical for getting things done. I always say that we’re not paid to learn things—a task that’s never-ending—but to do things. Of course, we need to read and attend courses and seminars, but that isn’t enough; we need to apply all of it to projects, whether professional or personal, to truly gain knowledge and experience.
I love the last-mile theory: someone who jogs and wants to keep improving and cover longer distances doesn’t achieve that overnight, but gradually. Once you’ve reached the distance you set for yourself, don’t stop there; keep going, even if it’s another five hundred meters or a kilometer. In other words, when you’ve achieved the goal you set, carry on a little further.
That little extra is what sets you apart from everyone else, from the competition, and what lets you overcome your personal limits.
Excellence, or doing a job well, isn’t about taking care of just one aspect; it’s about everything the work involves, from documentation and test quality to the quality of the news stories about the project on the web. As I once read: “How you do anything is how you do everything.”
How can we apply the last-mile theory to our work as developers or to our everyday working lives?
Here are a few things I do. These aren’t things I’ve merely read about and am now repeating to write this or impress my friends or clients we’re trying to sell something to. No—these are things I’ve practiced almost every day for years.
You can apply the last-mile theory when:
- You’ve finished writing a simple email and pause to review it before sending; you’ll probably find a phrase to improve or a typo. Those details matter to me because the recipient will feel valued when they read something well put together, or dismissed if they can tell you wrote it in a hurry without paying attention. Reviewing it can take less than a minute. I hate those rushed emails, full of typos, that you have to read twice to understand.
- You’ve finished the set of tests you planned to check a particular feature. Before making the commit, the check-in, or whatever, you can surely spend thirty seconds looking for another test case or a small refactoring that improves the quality of those tests.
- You’re adding the user stories to be implemented in an upcoming sprint. Before calling them done, you can probably make them a little clearer with one more review.
- Not long ago, I had to write an information note about one of our products for our clients. After considering it finished, I read it three times. Each time, I found a phrase I could improve or a small typo. These reviews didn’t take all morning—not even close—just fifteen minutes or so.
These kinds of details may seem insignificant because they usually take very little time, but over the course of a week or a month there are many of them—hundreds. They add up and make a real difference in everything you do.
Have you ever seen something and wondered why it seems more professional? Its creators have probably made the last-mile theory part of their daily routine, so almost imperceptibly, the quality of their work reaches a higher level.
The habit of going a little further won’t protect you from making mistakes or occasionally delivering something shoddy, but it certainly helps us make fewer blunders and improve the quality of everything we do.