October 5, 1956. Don Larsen pitches the only perfect game in Major League Baseball`s postseason history.

July 18, 1976. Nadia Comaneci scores the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics competition.

Though both reached perfection (as defined by the parameters of their sport); neither athlete stopped competing after achieving perfection. Quite the contrary, both continued to work and practice to master their crafts.

Perfection isn`t something often achieved in life or business. Even Six Sigma processes don`t claim perfection as the target, but rather something less than 3.4 defects per million occurrences.

And while perfection is seldom achievable, it can still be your goal. Whatever your starting point, hopefully your organizational and personal goals include continue to improve and continuing to optimize the processes that drive your business (and personal) results.

This article isn`t about tools or techniques to help with process optimization, instead it`s about the reality of the journey of process improvement and optimization, and perhaps the biggest obstacle you face on that journey.

Complacency.

Almost everyone faces or feels complacent at some time. And the longer an organization has worked to improve processes, and the more success they have achieved, the more likely this obstacle will become a problem. Leaders must acknowledge, face and overcome the comfort zone success creates and the complacency that comes with it.

Once you recognize that complacency (in any of its forms) could be a challenge, it is important to diagnose which type of complacency you are facing.

The Five Faces of Complacency

Complacency will be found in one of more of the following attitudes or behavior patterns.

* Champions. Champions are looking at the process and the competition and singing "We are the Champions!" The prevailing attitude often is that once you reach number one, there is no more need for growth. Even a cursory historical view of champions in sports shows the fallacy of this mindset. More directly, let`s look at industry.

Of the twelve stocks that composed the original Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) only General Electric remains - and many of the remaining eleven stocks aren't in existence in any form. Clearly employees and leaders of those other eleven companies would have had the "right" to consider themselves Champions, and yet look at their fate. Of the current 30 stocks composing the DJIA, 8 have been added (which means 8 have been removed!) within the last ten years.

The message is clear. If the complacency of being the Champion invades your thinking, not only are you unlikely to continue to engage earnestly in process improvement and optimization, but your supremacy is in peril.

* Resigned. Some people think this is "as good as it gets." Even when people look at how far they have come and see the progress that has been made they still believe that they have gotten all the improvement that is possible. They become resigned to the fact and a certain "what`s the use" attitude prevails - even when shown data that supports room for growth.

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