Is Going Above and Beyond Always the Best Choice?

People often will compliment a worker by saying that he or she has gone “above and beyond.”  This usually means going above and beyond the call of duty, or doing more than what is expected.  There is a very positive connotation with this compliment as it often indicates a willingness to work hard, and to solve anticipated needs before they are even formally requested.  This may lead an employee to believe that going above and beyond is a sure-fire way to succeed.

Are there times, however, where going “above and beyond” is not the best choice?  Just a few weeks ago, I was working with a team on an upcoming project involving data mining and analysis.  We discussed the main activities required to implement, and the supporting action items for the first few activities on the Implementation Plan.  After those few actions were completed by their assigned team members, we would reconvene to review and provide feedback which would direct the next activity.

One team member not only accomplished his tasks, but also went on to the next round of activities, bypassing the review step (which was also listed in the Implementation Plan).  He spent a lot of time detailing out several charts, when really only one is needed, and that one was going to be designed by the team given establishing some preliminary data fields in the company’s ERP system.  Complicating things now is that the main stakeholder who needs to buy-in to the chart(s) is super busy and has not had time to review any of them at all. 

It is nice to have a team member who is willing to put in extra effort to go above and beyond, but in this case, he now feels a bit unappreciated because the main stakeholder hasn’t had time to review his work.  Also, he has spent all the time that he has to give to this project in creating multiple charts, and no longer has any more time to allocate for refinements.  When the project team reviews the charts together, we may have to select one of the options even if it does not provide the exact information we need and/or in the easiest to understand format because now the person who would improve the chart(s) has already used up all his available project time. 

The bottom line here is that sometimes there is a reason for detailing out milestone activities and including team review and buy-in into the Implementation Plan.  In those cases, going above and beyond the next step may lead to problems.  In this case, the project’s resource budget from this team member is fully used, and the desired results are not necessarily in place.  In other cases, it may be a financial budget being used, or insufficient training or feedback from all stakeholders before launch which could improve ultimate adoption of the project’s desired result. 

My personal learning here is that, as the consultant project manager, I should have emphasized with the team the importance of the review step before moving on to creating the desired chart(s).  At least it provides a good question to bring up to readers – when should employees go “above and beyond?”  While this phrase still feels complimentary, the actual practice should be undertaken only with a keen understanding of how the extra effort will affect the project and/or project team, including your allocated support time, as a whole.

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