Chasing Perfection, Catching Excellence

JJCA’s 2023 theme is Excellence.

It’s the first year since we’ve been setting a theme that the word is a noun and not a verb. Why? Perhaps we’re not good word-smithers. We’re more the plan-smithing type, so picking words can be exhausting at times, but still helpful.

The journey that arrived at Excellence took us through several options, each illuminating the path to what we wanted to communicate. Drive. Hone. Dazzle. Surpass. Exceed. Distinguish. Differentiate. Each could be seen as a road to the destination for our theme, but they didn’t land it.

After spending a year Cultivating, we’ve built better trust and a deeper understanding of who we are as a team, strengthened our desire to serve the wonderful people we work for and with, and richened the foundational soil from which our work should sprout and thrive. 

This year we’re looking toward a destination. We are driven to Excellence. So how do we get there? 

We’ve shared quotes in years past to ring true to who we want to be at our core. We think Vince Lombardi, considered by many to be one of the greatest leaders and coaches in American sports history, says it powerfully. 

“…We will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.”

A quick google search on Coach Lombardi will yield his winning percentage as 73.8 percent. That’s not 100 percent. So how did he become known as one of the greatest and worthy to talk about excellence? The secret is in the journey… the chase as he calls it.

So, since we know that perfection is not attainable, why is Excellence an important place to be? Why do we think that for JJCA, it’s the only place for us to be? 

Now more than ever, we must not permit ourselves the comfort of complacency. 

We must continually create value for our clients and team members, so they want to work with us again and again. We strive to stand out as a leading architectural firm. Differentiation comes in the way we execute and the day-to-day experiences we provide. It comes in the way we support each other and in being sure we are working smart and careful, fast and nimble. 

So, in the year ahead we’re going to think, discuss, and chase. Our chase will lead inward and outward. We’re going to explore the tension between excellence and efficiency, and continually improve in making reliable commitments. Externally, we’re going to focus on eliminating rework, assigning the right team members to the right job, staying in touch with key partners, and asking our consultants and contractors to join the chase as well.

We’re all on board to catch Excellence in 2023. Happy New Year!