Find my quote on performance expectations

August 20, 2019 9:38 AM

Years ago, I remember reading a quote about performance expectations. It was something about how we think we judge our standards by the best work we receive, but our actual standard is the lowest quality work that we accept. I think the line was in a book about teaching (and so the context was about teachers setting the standard as the worst student work that they would pass or would not require to be resubmitted). I have no clue how to track down this quote!
posted by philosophygeek to Education (4 answers total)

There's this quote from David Morrison, a senior officer in the Australian Army: "the standard you walk past is the standard you accept".
posted by crocomancer at 10:06 AM on August 20, 2019

I have no idea how to find that particular quote, but I can say that the idea is basically how "Acceptable Quality Level" is defined. AQL is "a statistical measurement of the maximum number of defective goods considered acceptable in a particular sample size." So, yeah, the lowest quality that we will accept is dead on, statistically.
posted by cross_impact at 10:14 AM on August 20, 2019

Hmmm was it in Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones?
posted by jeszac at 1:34 PM on August 20, 2019

Yes jeszac, that was it! "The standard of excellence on any job site is defined by the sloppiest piece of work that you will accept."
posted by philosophygeek at 5:52 PM on August 20, 2019