There’s a saying I love: There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. Over the years, I’ve come to believe the same is true of excellence. It’s not a finish line, but a mindset, a commitment, and a journey. It helps you stay open, lean into discomfort, and always ask questions; especially when the road ahead is so uncertain.
In today’s business world, AI is reshaping everything. To meet that constant shift, high-performing teams don’t just need skills. They need a very specific mindset to operate in a culture that nurtures the pursuit of excellence.
That’s what I’ve worked to build at Digivizer. From day one, I worked with my team to design a culture that doesn’t reward having all the answers. Instead, it rewards curiosity, those who strive for constant improvement towards excellence, and empowers teams to question the status quo with “Is there a better way?”.
We don’t see excellence as a synonym for perfection, it’s why we love a test-and-learn approach to our work. In the competitive industry of marketing and martech, embracing a way of thinking that strives for continuous excellence is a core part of what sets high-performing teams apart. The right culture, therefore, will ultimately be the difference between staying ahead and falling behind. That too comes from challenge, and in many ways, challenging comfort.
Comfort is the Enemy of Excellence
Comfort might feel good, but in business, it’s dangerous. It tricks teams into thinking “good enough” is enough, even when the world around them is shifting. It’s like the frog in the pot: the heat rises slowly, and before you know it, you’re cooked. That’s why comfort is the enemy of excellence. It dulls urgency, suppresses curiosity, and blocks the questions that drive growth.
Jim Collins says it best in Good to Great: “The enemy of great is good.” In short: don’t pursue comfort. Pursue better.
The antidote? Embrace discomfort. Be willing to test, to risk being wrong, to start again. Gartner research tells us 70% of people don’t feel equipped to do their jobs well. But in my experience, it’s not a capability issue. It’s a mindset one. The real danger is the insight gap, when people act from assumptions or partial knowledge, unaware of what they’re missing.
Excellence demands we ask questions like What don’t I know? What haven’t we considered? and What else is possible? so you’re looking in the right direction, and growing.
The Hidden Cost of Not Knowing
Insight gaps are rarely obvious. They hide behind politeness, past wins, surface-level confidence, or perfectionism. Saying, “I don’t know” can feel risky, but it’s actually one of the most powerful things a leader or team member can say.
I’ve learned to treat assumptions as just that: assumptions are not truths. When something goes wrong, I no longer ask, “Why didn’t we know?” I ask, “What did we fail to ask? What did we overlook?”
This shift reframes failure. It makes room for improvement because excellence doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s shaped by what we see, what we share, and how willing we are to keep challenging ourselves.
That’s why at Digivizer, we talk a lot about insight gaps. Often, they’re unintentional. People interpret things differently, come from different contexts, or don’t see the “why” behind the “what.” While 64% of managers aren’t confident their teams will keep up with the skills needed for future success, the key is to encourage curiosity and to encourage the challenging of assumptions.
Driving the Pursuit of Excellence
If there’s one thing I want you to remember from this, it’s that high performance starts with the willingness to keep asking, keep exploring, and keep improving.
And that’s what curiosity really is. It’s the courage to say, “I don’t know, but I want to find out.” I have seen breakthroughs come from every level of the business, often from someone asking, “Could this be done better?”
But for that to happen, people must feel safe enough to ask. That’s why our leadership team creates deliberate space for questioning, reflection, and experimentation, even when it slows us down short-term. Curiosity is the spark behind every improvement, every pivot, every big idea. And curiosity, unlike most skillsets, doesn’t expire. It’s a renewable resource.
The half-life of skills is now less than 5 years, sometimes even as low as 2.5 in tech. What we know today won’t carry us tomorrow. But a team that keeps questioning? That’s a team built to thrive and stay relevant.
So build through wanting more than just comfort. When we build cultures that reward exploration, not just cushion execution, we create teams that are agile, engaged, and always ready for what’s next.
Building Systems that support the standard
I used to think culture followed strategy. I now know it’s the other way around. Culture determines whether strategy thrives or fails.
At Digivizer, we’ve embedded systems that keep excellence alive in our day-to-day:
- Feedback loops that flow in all directions, from the top-down to the bottom-up and peer-to-peer
- Real-time dashboards to keep priorities visible
- Cross-functional reviews that test alignment early
- Regular retros to reflect and improve.
Excellence doesn’t require waiting for a magic “excellent state” – it requires conscious, continuous progress. Make a decision. Ship it. Then continually test, learn, and improve it.
One habit that’s had a huge impact for us at Digivizer is the “10-minute rule”: if someone’s stuck for more than 10 minutes, they ask for help. It sounds simple, but it’s powerful. That small habit builds trust, unlocks momentum, and reinforces that asking is a strength — not a weakness.
Why do these habits matter? According to Deloitte, with strong learning cultures are 92% more likely to innovate and 17% more profitable. But more than that, they’re resilient.
Those numbers don’t come from one-off training sessions, they come from systems that make learning a daily habit. Because cultures that invite better questions create the best answers.
Excellence is the Way Forward
The pursuit of excellence is a discipline, pairing curiosity with action. Challenge with experimentation. Learning with momentum. Whether it’s hackathons, retros, shared wins or agreed progression points, we move forward by design, not default.
In a world redefined by AI and constant change, this mindset is essential. The leaders and teams who thrive won’t be the ones with all the answers, but the ones brave enough to ask better questions – and disciplined enough to act on what they learn.
The pursuit of excellence doesn’t stop when you hit a goal.
It’s a daily practice of curiosity, and it’s how we grow together.