Excellence vs. Perfection: A Psychologist Explains Wabi Sabi

Have you ever sat through a meeting where every status was green and you knew, deep down, that wasn't actually true?This isn't a communication problem. It's a perfectionism problem. In this episode, Dr. Jamie Shapiro unpacks why so many teams default to "everything's on track" when it isn't and introduces a 500-year-old Japanese philosophy that her firm has adapted into a structured team practice for moving from a fear-based culture to a learning-based one.You'll learn:— Why "this isn't a communication problem, it's a perfectionism problem"— The difference between fear-based and learning-based team cultures— What wabi sabi means and how Jamie discovered it inside a public company— Why "failure" became a four-letter word — and what to call it instead— The failure spectrum (and why most teams treat all failure the same)— Type 1 (doing) vs. Type 2 (reflecting) learning, and the one teams skip— The 6-step Wabi Sabi Practice for honest team reflectionSHOW NOTES(00:00) Why "everything is green" is a red flag(01:12) Fear-based vs. learning-based culture(01:48) What is wabi sabi?(02:32) The company that banned the word "failure"(05:34) Why perfectionism kills performance(07:44) Failure is a spectrum (Amy Edmondson)(09:20) Type 1 vs. Type 2 learning(10:28) The 6-step wabi sabi practice(13:36) A note from a recovering perfectionistIf this episode resonated, please follow the show, leave a rating, and share it with one leader you think needs to hear it. New episodes drop weekly.