January 13, 2010 - Are You Getting the Details Right?

Main Idea

Are you a detail person or a big picture visionary?  When you go on vacation, do you have the complete itinerary figured out in advance or do you wing it?  What takes longer to fix, big problems or little leaks?  Does your company operate under the motto “Close enough for government work”?

Expansion of Idea

Today was not a picture of perfection here in my office.  Our computers have been operating very slowly, especially one particular computer.  Part of the problem is that we have a new CPA who started yesterday.  She is not the problem.  The problem is that, when I set her up as a user on her computer, I failed to set her up with the correct user rights.  When she started to open our tax software today, the system really did not like that.  It froze the whole system and we had to bring down our server.  In the back of my mind, I vaguely remember having had this problem before.  Since I have not had a new employee for a couple of years, I forgot about this.  As I was waiting for the computer to reboot, it dawned on me that the devil is in the details. 

How many of our problems are related to not getting something completely set up?   When you think about the details in your business, do some of those details determine whether or not you succeed and truly delight your customers or employees?  Or by not getting the details just right, do you create problems and upset your customers?  The details can set us apart from our competition or can bury us.  The key is how we process them.  A lot of this can be systemized and these problems can be eliminated.  However, a big part of the problem is committing to finish a job or project.  All of us are scrambling for time.  Then we wonder why we are not getting referrals from customers for jobs that are almost finished. 

Here are some things to think about:

  • What are you not completely finishing?

  • Are you setting aside enough time to do the job?

  • Are you properly planning your job?