October 8, 2016

Detail, schmetail

Details

Yes, the devil is in the detail. Yes, there’s a difference between spot on and just a little bit off.

Details are the atoms that make the matter – and they matter.

But.

It’s too damn easy to get overwhelmed in detail. To get so buried – to fuss and sweat and poke around in the minutiae, to trade in trivia – that you lose all sense of direction, let alone progress. How many meetings swing off track when a little thing dominates and distracts from the big things that got you there? How deep is the red sea of lawyering, back-and-forthing over a non-issue hiccup? How long can we talk about the thing that holds up the thing that connects to the thing we actually care about?

Details matter, and, they are proportionate.

Skippy strategy: Spend as much time on a detail as it deserves, and no more.

Category:
Focus