The Devil and God Are In The Details: Increasing The Ability To Get Results In Your Organization
by Bill Granda
Since 1991, as consultant, business coach, and advisor with Paradigm Associates, Bill Granda has been helping businesses and individuals improve their ability to overcome obstacles and get results. He engages with key players and teams, particularly those in or approaching important transitions, to develop and execute practical business and transition strategies. Clients have found him especially helpful when they recognize they have to do something different, but don't know exactly what that is, or they know what is needed but aren't sure how to best get it done. Many of his clients are closely-held and family businesses, non-profits, and professional firm owners who put a premium on professional competence and really helping their clients.
You've no doubt heard the phrase, "the Devil is in the details." I recently read an article that started, "God is in the details." Interesting thought, looking at both phrases metaphorically as they might apply to leadership in the sense that the good, the positive, and the bad, the negative, are in the details.
The following anecdotes illustrate what I mean.
- In a strategic planning meeting with his executive team a company President made a strong case for including innovation as one of the core values of the company. Team members agreed. Yet every time anyone brought a new idea to that President, his first question was, "what will it cost?"
- Imagine this scenario. Friday 4:00 PM an
employee gets a call from a customer who needs
something in a hurry. Knowing profitability is
important, your employee replies, "I'll get on it first
thing Monday morning," so he doesn't incur overtime
or extra shipping costs. Tuesday his manager walks
into his office wanting to know, "What don't you
understand about customer service? I just got a call
from an irate customer who called you Friday
afternoon with a rush order and didn't get it till this
morning."
The following Friday the same employee gets another rush order from a different customer. This time the employee tells the customer he'll get on it right away and ship it out for Saturday delivery. The following Wednesday his manager wants to know why all the additional overtime and shipping costs from the previous week; after all the company is trying to watch expenses.
The third time the employee gets a Friday afternoon rush order, he concludes that the only way to be sure to do what the manager wants is to go ask. Reasonable approach, and the manager even appreciates being asked. Here's the rub. How many times will someone need to ask the manager what to do before it wears thin and he explodes, "Can't anybody think around here?" - When I was a Boy Scout leader, our troop leaders
had a simple reply whenever a boy asked an adult for
help. Unless an immediate safety issue was
involved, the adult replied, "Do I look like your Patrol
Leader." And the Scout always went and found other
boys to help him solve the problem.
It's easy to see such an interchange between boy and adult as a detail. And it is, but it reflected our troop's philosophy that Scouting is a boy-run organization that helps boys develop character and leadership. Every time an adult intervenes to solve a problem, it robs the boys of a learning opportunity. Or perhaps more accurately, it teaches them the wrong thing.
I'm not suggesting that management teams micromanage; probably the opposite. But isn't it a key responsibility of leaders to make sure that key ideas, values, priorities do get translated into consistent day- to-day behavior in all parts of their organization? For example what might be the impact if some of the following made their way consistently into the details:
- Distinguishing between activities and results
- Looking from the perspective of the entire organization, not just one's department or job
- Focusing on common goals
- Continuous improvement of the organization, teams, people, systems and processes
- Appropriately balancing long- and short-term thinking, planning, and acting
- Employee engagement, accountability, ability to make sound decisions
- Focusing on customers
One closing thought-provoker. Put aside for now the notion of the characteristics or qualities of an ideal leader and instead develop your own list (you can seek input from others) of the actual behaviors of ideal leaders. And then see which ones you might want to develop. Remember God, as well as the devil, is in the details.