I am British and, by default, a tea drinker. I don’t drink coffee following an awful experience when I was younger (ask me about it if we meet) so rely on a traditional mug of tea three times a day.

Making – and enjoying – a tea comes with a nagging fear every time. The fear (which many Brits will recognise) is that I will make a cup of tea which tastes simply perfect, that I will never be able to make one quite as good ever again. A fraction too much (or too little) milk, a too short steeping, or a bad pour can all turn the perfect cuppa to a suboptimal one. There is nothing worse than an unsatisfying tea.

This simple activity, with expectations way above its place in our day to day world, doesn’t seem to apply to our work. Too often we strive for scalability and mass delivery rather than the tailored art of the perfect production. The MVT – minimum viable tea – isn’t a tea bag in a takeaway cup made with hot, not boiling, water and served with UHT milk. That’s minimum, not viable.

Too often we produce the rushed product; but rushed isn’t brewed and we need to, sometimes, take our time. In effect we’re driven to deliver what’s just good enough for everyone instead of what’s exceptional for someone.

Take pride in making something perfect and toast it with a cuppa. However, never expect it to be as perfect again. At least not without proper preparation and the understanding that it may not be as great as it was before.