The Power of the "Next Best Thing": Progress Over Perfection.

"If I had no extra resources, what is the best thing I can still give my customer now in terms of value?"

Hey Friend,

Let me tell you something about working on process improvement projects: it’s a wild ride. I’ve had the privilege of working with all kinds of people—different industries, personalities, and vibes. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned during brainstorming sessions, it’s that some folks can get a bit, shall we say, dramatic when it comes to solving long-standing problems.

You know the type. They’ve been at the company since Noah built the ark, and they’ll tell you, "We tried fixing this mess back in 1925, with X, Y, and even Z—and guess what? None of it worked!" They seem so certain that because they couldn’t solve the problem then, it is impossible now, and it’s understandable. After all, it’s frustrating to pour hours into an improvement project that either falls flat or gets swept aside when the company suddenly shifts focus.

But here's the thing I’ve had to preach almost as much as Lean and Six Sigma principles: "Do the next best thing."

Now, what's the "Next Best Thing"? It’s simple—it’s the best thing you can offer when what you really want isn’t an option. If Plan A is a pipe dream, Plan B (or even Plan C) is still better than doing nothing.

My "Next Best Thing" Lesson

Let me take you back to my time as an Operations SME at a tech company. We had just rolled out a shiny new feature (we were feeling ourselves, I won’t lie), but we forgot one thing—only a few of us SMEs had been trained to handle disputes related to it. So, Mondays were pure chaos. We had customers sending in complaints, ticket after ticket, raising issues faster than we could resolve them. It was like trying to bail water out of a sinking canoe with a spoon.

My manager, bless his heart, came to me with a challenge (I was mostly called Femi): "Femi, I need you to write a process that will reduce our SLA from 5 days to 1 day." Five days to one day? I was tempted to ask if he’d also like me to turn water into wine while I was at it. We had tried something similar before, and it hadn’t worked. I thought to myself, "We’re wasting time here. Let’s focus on something more realistic."

That’s when my manager sat me down and gave me the talk—you know, the one about the "Next Best Thing."

He said, "Femi, you might be right that we can’t reduce the SLA from 5 days to 1 day right now, but what’s stopping us from improving it to 3 days?" Ah, the lightbulb moment. Sure, customers wanted instant resolutions, but if we couldn’t offer that, wouldn’t they still prefer 3 days over 5?

Eventually, I wrote a process that brought the SLA down to 3 days. Over the coming months, we chipped away at the problem and finally hit the 1-day mark. The "Next Best Thing" got us there step by step.

Keep Chipping Away

Here’s the thing—during brainstorming sessions, many of us (myself included) tend to get stuck in an all-or-nothing mindset. We fail to ask, "Okay, maybe we can’t fix everything, but what can we offer that’s better than nothing?"

Like I mentioned in one of my earlier letters, Lean Methodology is all about maximizing value for customers within your resources. So, if you find yourself in a situation where you’re thinking, "We can’t solve this problem," ask yourself this instead:

"If I had no extra resources, what is the best thing I can still give my customer now in terms of value?"

Trust me, that shift in thinking can get you past the roadblock of "impossible" projects and take you to a place where meaningful, incremental change happens. It’s not about waving a magic wand and fixing everything in one go—it’s about doing something better with what you’ve got.

The same principle applies outside of work. Whether it’s getting fit, saving money, or learning a new skill, it’s easy to look at our big goals and feel overwhelmed. Instead, ask yourself: “What’s the next best thing I can do now until I reach goal X?”

Give it a shot—because every small improvement chips away at that big mountain standing in your way. Before you know it, you’ll have moved it piece by piece.

So next time you’re staring down a mountain of problems and feeling like your hands are tied, remember: Doing the next best thing will always get you further than doing nothing.

Until next time, keep improving—even if it’s just one step at a time.

Best, Tomiwa

Lean Process Improvement Enthusiast

(It feels like I’m getting better at this newsletter thing!)