When the Little Things Become the Big Things

It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen. - John Wooden

A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching. - Swami Sivananda

I drive my teams crazy regarding the small details of our projects.  While many self-described experts tell you not to worry about the small things, I have found over the years that the small things add up to the big things and can prove to be catastrophic in potential and impact if ignored.  Sometimes the item believed to be small, insignificant or statistically unlikely becomes the thing with the greatest impact as I mused about in Statistics: The Mathematical Theory of Ignorance.

I recently declined an opportunity to work with a not-for-profit because they ignored the importance of the small things, creating documents with legal errors, leaving board members with little or no liability coverage should something go awry and allowing board members to sign documents that they knew contained legal issues.  The board members didn’t seem to have an issue with this either so they had no interest in pushing back, demanding higher standards.

In my polite declining of the opportunity to work with them, they cited the mistakes as minor things falling through the cracks.

The problem is that they are not minor at all.  Creating documents with legal mistakes in them and having board members who have no issue signing them, knowing that there are legal mistakes and loopholes in them, is a recipe for a disaster down the road.

And when the disaster comes, everyone will act surprised as is often the case.

Unfortunately in such situations, the innocent as well as the guilty are hurt and that is the greatest crime of all.

The little things do matter.

Take this example.

This is an airport at an undisclosed location – the photo was taken a few days ago.

Note the excellent security, including cameras, multiple keypads, barbed wire – this entry point is secure within reasonable definition.

Go 100 yards down the street and you come across a second gate.  Everything looks good (again within reasonable definition of security).

Go another 100 yards down the street and you find this – no gate, no fence, no signs – nothing.

Some people will argue that there are likely hidden cameras in place to prevent miscreants from performing an evil deed.  I would argue that if this were the case, you wouldn’t need the excellent security at the other gates either – just a camera and hope.

But if anything should happen at this airport, everyone will act surprised.

And hope is never a strategy.

The Bottom Line

The little things do matter.

The art and science of knowing what is a little thing with great potential versus the little thing that is trivial in potential is worthy of learning.

Otherwise, when you claim that something fell through the cracks or you were caught by surprise as the little droplet of water developed into an overwhelming tsunami, you will have no one else to blame.

They won’t believe you anyway, especially when the details are revealed.

Do you allow the little things to go unnoticed or ignored in terms of potential?

Are you willing to take a chance that they are not as small and insignificant as you think?

Are you sure?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Small things ....

When I wrote this, I was reminded of these "small" experiences in airport security, noted in my musing Terror: Vulnerability Through Decent Acts.

My Life In The CIA

It's part of a writer's profession, as it's part of a spy's profession, to prey on the community to which he's attached, to take away information - often in secret - and to translate that into intelligence for his masters, whether it's his readership or his spy masters. - John le Carre

It has come to my attention in recent days that a certain percentage of my network have come to the conclusion that I belong to the CIA or some other covert organization.

They base this revelation on the nature of the projects I have participated on, the nature of segments of my network, the subjects I write about (especially my #1206 series) and my way of analyzing the world around me.

But it was a tweet by Newfoundland political activist Brad Cabana (@BradCabana) to a third party that made me realize that it was time to come clean regarding my background.

Here is the tweet.

As the impact of private and public accusations sinks in, I realize I can’t deny my past or present any longer.

With a heavy heart, I release this letter from my superiors.

Anyone who understands the file # at the bottom will appreciate that I have a sense of humor. :-)

In a world where social media, the news media (being an entertainment industry and not an information one) and Hollywood weave fantasies to relieve us of the pressures of reality for a little bit, too many people have trouble separating fantasy from reality.

Unfortunately, this disconnect between fantasy and reality also applies to many people when it comes to solving problems.

Reality: To get things done, coherent strategy built upon solid data matters. A little paranoia can be healthy.  Too much is a disaster.

The ability to use strategy, facts and data, fuelled by appropriate levels of passion and emotion (not excessive levels of either), will mean the difference between whether your objectives produce any positive, measurable results at all or whether you serve as an example to others (or a source of mild entertainment at your expense).

So to all those who try to move the world in the direction they believe is right by using taunts, intimidation, bullying or paranoia instead of service to others via appropriate, measurable strategy and appropriate, verifiable data , I have a warning for you.

You are about to be left behind.

You just don’t know it yet.

Or as Despair.Com notes:

As for my real background, I offer the following training film.

In service and servanthood,

██████████████████

Fried Chicken and Lousy Business Execution

I was amused to read this news item today of an enterprising pair of burglars who were attempting to break into a jewellery store by cutting through a common wall shared with a bathroom facility behind the jewellery store.

Unfortunately, the bathroom facility also shared a wall with a KFC and so when they broke through the wall, they and the staff of the KFC were equally surprised to see each other.

Undeterred and demonstrating some quick thinking, the burglars impromptuously held up the KFC and made off with some cash before being caught later.

Alas ….. this is what happens when great intentions and poor execution come together.

Business is no different

I had a conversation with a prospect recently who was lamenting the fact that despite having adopted the best processes that they could find in their industry, their results were actually worse than before they started.

“What problem did you identify that caused you to adopt these processes?”, I asked.

His reply was surprisingly candid. “We had evolved to a point where we simply couldn’t work together”, he said.

“Did you figure out why you couldn’t work together?”, I asked.

“No – why does that matter?”, he replied.

“Because if you didn’t know what the problem was, how did you go about selecting a solution?”, I asked.

The light bulb that went off in his head was so bright that it blinded me on the other end of the phone.

Before you pick a solution ….

Powerful processes, fantastic frameworks and beautiful best-practices (and awesome alliteration) are all well and good.

But if you don’t know what the problem is, then the solutions you are layering over the problem often become contributors to a larger problem instead of contributors towards a solution.

If, when a problem is identified and a solution selected, the problem and solution can’t stand up to the scrutiny of “how do you know?” in a measurable way, I’d be willing to bet you haven’t identified either very well.

Some people are happy to execute anyway with the blind optimism that everything will just “work out”.

That’s like leaving your office and driving around the building in ever-increasing circles until you eventually arrive home by accident, hours or days later instead of what could have been minutes … unless you run out of fuel, fall asleep at the wheel or get derailed by a detour.

Intelligent execution is everything

If one doesn’t execute intelligently, strategically and with effective tactical roadmaps, it is very difficult to anticipate what the end result will look like.

However, to blindly execute anyway with good intentions and poor execution, as in the case of these two burglars, produces a higher likelihood that you will end up with fried chicken instead of diamonds.

Now that’s fine if you like fried chicken.

But then again, if fried chicken is your thing, you can buy a lot more with a fistful of diamonds.

In service and servanthood,

Harry