Are you dissatisfied?

Positive dissatisfaction is an expression I often hear during business reviews.  I’ve even pinned it down to its basic structure:  “You’re doing great and I’m happy with what you did ..(more praises) but (here it comes) in the spirit of positive dissatisfaction you should…(insert improvement opportunity here).”  While dreadful at first, this is exactly the type of comment we should learn to welcome. They’re actually letting you off the hook! To me this feedback means, “We believe you’re STILL CAPABLE of doing better.” Now, is that a statement of belief in you or what?

I’m all for positive thinking and reinforcement. We need these to encourage us and to motivate us further. But to a degree, we also need to always be critical of what we have achieved and to be always thinking of improving what we have done.

How dissatisfaction can help:
1. Keeps complacency in check.
2. Spurs us into further improving ourselves and our situation (irritants create pearls).
3. Nothing new was created by a satisfied person
4. Change and progress were always brought about by dissatisfied folks
5. Satisfied people tend to keep doing the same thing, that’s why things never seem to change.