Davide Di Giorgio — Good Enough (2026)

The Cost of
Good Enough

Calculate what tolerating average team performance is actually costing your operation — in figures your P&L has never labelled.

23% Higher profitability
for engaged teams
81% Lower absenteeism
for engaged teams
43% Lower turnover
for engaged teams

The Gallup Q12 meta-analysis tracked engagement across more than 100,000 business units. Engaged teams show 23% higher profitability, 14% higher productivity, 81% lower absenteeism, and 43% lower turnover than disengaged ones.

Those figures are not aspirational benchmarks. They are already on your books — labelled as overtime costs, recruitment fees, sick days, and output shortfalls. This tool converts them into a number specific to your operation. The methodology is transparent. You can check the arithmetic.

Your operation
Appears on the printed version if you save or share your results.
Include direct reports and the full team you're accountable for. If you lead multiple teams or locations, use total headcount. Please enter a team size greater than zero.
Your best estimate. If salaries vary widely, use the median. Base salary only — exclude bonuses, benefits, and contractor fees.
Please enter an average salary greater than zero.
Choose the input method that matches what you know.
Enter the percentage of your team who score as engaged on a formal measure — Gallup Q12, eNPS, or equivalent. If your score is a raw number rather than a percentage, convert it first. Please enter a percentage between 0 and 100.
Move the slider to your honest estimate. If you're not sure, aim lower rather than higher — you can recalculate. 33%
0% Global avg 23% US avg 33% Top quartile 65% 100%
If most of your team shows up, does their job, and goes home without much initiative or discretionary effort when it matters — you're likely in the 25–40% range.
Enter your annual voluntary turnover rate — the percentage of employees who leave by choice in a 12-month period. We'll map this to an estimated engagement level using Gallup's benchmarks.
Please enter a turnover rate before calculating.
If provided, we'll calculate the profitability impact of closing your engagement gap — based on Gallup's 23% profitability premium. Leave blank to skip this calculation.

Your results

The cost of good enough in your operation

Total annual cost of your performance gap

per year

Over five years without intervention

Additional: estimated profitability impact

What this number means

This is not a projection of lost potential. It is the cost of what is already happening — the gap between what your team is capable of delivering and what they are delivering, in the moments that aren't being watched or measured.

Most organisations respond to a number like this by adding: another recognition programme, another engagement survey, another manager-effectiveness module. Gallup has been publishing variations of this data for thirty years. The scores haven't moved.

Good Enough makes a different argument. The gap closes not when you add more, but when you remove what is preventing your team from believing the work is worth their best. That is a different problem to solve, and a different kind of leadership to practise.

If this number is worth closing, the book is worth reading.

Good Enough

How great leaders build teams who care enough to perform when nobody's watching. By Davide Di Giorgio. Coming late 2026.

Join the Waitlist

Methodology. Based on Gallup Q12 global meta-analysis (Harter, Schmidt, Agrawal, Plowman & Blue, 2020). Productivity figure uses 17% — a conservative midpoint of Gallup's 14–21% range. Absenteeism cost calculated at 5.67 additional days per disengaged employee (81% lower absenteeism benchmark × 7-day annual baseline). Annual departure probability for disengaged employees set at 20%; replacement cost estimated at 40% of annual salary (standard HR benchmark). Turnover-to-engagement mapping and profitability calculations are estimates based on proportional scaling from Gallup's quartile data. Top-quartile benchmark set at 65% engaged. All figures are estimates for planning purposes; individual results will vary by industry, team structure, and market conditions.