Clean toilets and smart sidewalks; power of details

Once upon a time when I was a young graduate job hunting, I found myself with a dilemma. There had been a job fair and I ‘accidentally’ made a brilliant move of going there with about fifteen CVs. It was accidental because I only printed that many CV’s when my uncle gave me access to his office desktop (computers were rather rare and expensive for jobless graduates). He also critiqued my CV and his advice was invaluable. Perhaps that is why I approached so many firms with confidence. However, the real reason was that this was a golden opportunity to find all those employers in one place on the same day and save in ‘hoofing’ costs and time. It worked too.In the subsequent month I was called to five or six interviews and this presented me with a rather unusual problem. Every one of them talked fine and looked posh, but who among them was a good employer? Much as money was the main consideration, there had to be other factors to look at, beyond the money. I figured that as a young graduate, I started at the bottom of the pecking order as it were. I did not want anybody paying me well but treating me badly (being at the bottom of the rung and all).An idea hit me; to look at their toilets. Toilets would reveal a lot about a person/family/company. A well maintained toilet (especially if it is not VIP) means an efficient organisation. Organisations that have separate toilets for the bosses and others for abaturage (the rest) will at best be particular about distinctions and at worst discriminative. Think about it, the toilet is where the unguarded truth lies. It is important yet held in least regard among other rooms a house/office. The way a person/organisation treats little things like toilets and sidewalks says a lot about them. Back to my story, I chose to work with the guys who had clean toilets.Conventional management wisdom is characterised by the desire to be inspiring and empowering; look at the big picture, be democratic, not micromanage, delegate to your subordinates and all that good stuff. Problem is that sometimes these are taken without much thought and end up being permissive and nonsensical. There are a lot of management philosophies out there (I particularly like the Japanese ones) but it would be fallacious to presume that presume that one size fits all. So which way to managerial success?To begin with, one must start with attention to the details as they focus on the big picture. The devil is in the details. After all, the big picture is made up of the details, no? This is not to micromanage; rather it is TQM and TQC (total quality management and total quality control). Each team member must understand their role and why it is important. Their interests should be aligned with those of the organisation for them to achieve their targets efficiently. Find out what their own growth interests are and as much as possible create space for their growth in the organisation so as to retain them. Ensure that everyone is productively engaged and that what is produced is of superior quality. Details should fit in well, rather than derail the big picture.Looking at the small bits also has its advantages. First it is more manageable. The big job once broken into smaller tasks is simpler and easier to understand, achievable, easier and, therefore, manageable and manageable and achievable. Take Kigali, for example; it is becoming very highly regarded as a city in Africa already yet it does not have the best skyscrapers and nice gizmos as may be found elsewhere. This is because someone paid attention to the details like the clean sidewalks with hedges nice and trimmed, street lighting, security, houses built according to plans and, of course, clean toilets. Look at how far this has brought us.Little details are the building blocks of success. They are the little victories that make up the ‘great leap forward’ as Mao Tse Tung would say. Talking big picture without attention to detail is mere sloganeering. We have too much of that already.