Pragmatism
Pragmatism is one word away from an excuse, and the difference is entirely in whether somebody said what they were trading.
One word from an excuse
“We were being pragmatic” is the sentence used both by people who made a good call under real constraints and by people who cut a corner and would rather not discuss it.
The thing that separates them is whether anybody said what was traded, at the time, in writing.
Praise stopping
The hardest pragmatic act is recognising the point at which more effort produces nothing and walking away.
It feels like giving up to the person doing it, and it looks like giving up to everybody who was not paying attention, which is why it needs somebody to say out loud that it was the right call.
How you would know
- Names the trade
Says what is being sacrificed rather than presenting a shortcut as the plan.
- Sizes the problem first
Checks how much the thing matters before deciding how much to spend on it.
- Ships the useful half
Delivers the part that helps now instead of waiting for the complete version.
- Stops at good enough
Recognises the point past which more effort produces nothing.
6 messages that name it
You shipped the half that helps and said which half was missing. Both parts of that matter.
ManagerExplicitly credits the disclosure.
Thanks for asking how much this actually matters before we designed for a case that happens twice a year.
PeerOne question, one avoided cost.
You stopped when it was good enough and moved on. I would have kept going for two more days.
ManagerThe sender admits the alternative was theirs.
Elena solved it with a spreadsheet rather than a service. Two years later it is still a spreadsheet and still fine.
ManagerThe timeframe is the evidence.
Thank you for saying the shortcut was a shortcut. That is how it got fixed rather than forgotten.
PeerDistinguishes pragmatism from debt.
You told me the perfect version would take a quarter and asked whether we had a quarter. We did not.
ManagerFrames it as a question rather than a decision.
What its absence looks like
Where pragmatism is unexamined, every shortcut is a judgement call and none of them are written down. Two years later nobody can tell which decisions were deliberate.
Recognising it well
Recognise the disclosure. A shortcut named is pragmatism; the same shortcut unmentioned is debt somebody else will find.
Praise stopping. Knowing when more effort produces nothing is a judgement and it feels like giving up to the person making it.
Ask what it would have cost. Recognition that includes the avoided cost makes the case for the value better than any definition.
Questions people ask
- What does pragmatism mean as a company value?
Choosing what is good enough for the real situation and saying what was traded away. The second half is what separates it from cutting corners, and it is the half that gets skipped.
- How do you recognise pragmatism at work?
Thank the naming of the trade. Somebody who ships half the solution and says which half is missing has done something a person who ships half quietly has not.
- Is pragmatism a risky value to promote?
Only without the disclosure requirement. A company that praises pragmatism and never asks what was given up gets a codebase full of undocumented decisions that all looked reasonable at the time.
- What pragmatic behaviour goes unrecognised?
Stopping. Recognising the point where more effort stops producing anything is a real judgement, and it feels to the person making it like giving up rather than finishing.
Occasions where it shows up
Related values
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