by Megan McDonough
There’s a common misconception that at some point, the work is done. The project is complete. The finish line has been crossed. But that’s rarely the truth. We humans are always tinkering, always striving for something better, more refined, or more meaningful.
Sometimes a period isn’t the end of the sentence; it’s more like an ellipsis.
Consider Emily Dickinson. One challenge in turning her scraps of paper into published works was that her process was inherently unfinished. Should the word be only or merely? Dickinson’s notes often included both, leaving the choice—and the meaning—open-ended.
She wasn’t finished with her craft. And neither are we.
Approximating Perfection
What would your work look like if it were “good enough” for now, as a next step? Could you embrace the idea that even the most perfect iteration is still an approximation? Each round becomes part of a playful process of successive refinement—a “successive approximation” of perfection.
The idea of successive approximation isn’t just for the creative process—it’s foundational to leadership. Adaptive leadership, a concept developed by Ronald Heifetz, reminds us that leadership is not about having all the answers up front. Instead, it’s about creating the conditions for teams to experiment, learn, and refine strategies in response to evolving challenges.
How do we, as leaders, judge when enough is enough? Is it when milestones are reached? When market insights validate our instincts? Or is it when we create just enough structure to take the next step while leaving room for future pivots?
Prioritizing Process
At its heart, adaptive leadership values evolution over finality. It’s about guiding teams through cycles of action, reflection, and adaptation—fostering resilience, flexibility, and innovation.
Dickinson’s process offers a powerful parallel. Here’s an example from her envelope poems, where the slashes indicate words she was still weighing:
A great Hope
Fell
You heard no noise/crash
The Ruin/havoc/damage was within
By leaving all options visible—“noise” or “crash,” “ruin,” “havoc,” or “damage”—Dickinson preserved the layered possibilities of meaning. She understood that creativity, much like leadership, is a living process of iteration.
Empowering Innovation
When we adopt this lens in our leadership, we cultivate a culture of resilience, flexibility, and innovation. We move beyond rigid expectations and foster a mindset where the team feels empowered to iterate, fail, learn, and try again.
What if, instead of striving for the definitive answer, we embraced the unfinished? What if we saw progress, not perfection, as the measure of success? Could we find beauty in the potential of what remains, trusting each step?
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Megan McDonough
As the founder of Wholebeing Institute, Megan McDonough leads with divergent thinking and creative perspectives to build organizations and networks that harness the best in people for the greatest good. She has decades of leadership experience in diverse settings, in roles ranging from Alliance Manager of a $300 million relationship at DuPont; to General Manager of RISE at Kripalu, the largest yoga retreat center in North America; to numerous online-learning startups. A yoga enthusiast, Megan has practiced for more than 20 years and taught for more than a decade, and brings that mindfulness practice to her leadership. Her degree in biology, natural science, and nuclear medicine has little to do with her current work, and everything to do with her radically receptive approach to life. She is the award-winning author of four books on living mindfully.
