The devil is in the Details

What owner, leader, director or manager hasn’t lived the nightmare of losing a major customer or donor, presiding over a poorly executed fundraising campaign or botching a product launch? The irony is that expensive, embarrassing and sometimes giant failures often stem from a few relatively small mishandled details – flawed tactical actions, poor prioritization, missing pieces of expertise or perhaps a lack of bandwidth.

The phrase, “The devil is in the Details,” which refers to a catch hidden in the details is a variant of the earlier proverb, “God is in the Details,” generally attributed to Gustave Flaubert (1821-80), which means whatever one does should be done thoroughly; details are important.

We know that virtually all organizations have been forced to get focused, get lean and move faster to stay competitive. So how does an organization stay lean, get focused, move fast, execute (i.e. get the details done right) and do so profitably?

Ok. It’s not easy – right? Those with the most success tend to be better in answering the big question…

“Should we handle these execution details internally or not?”

…and three checklist questions that help them find the answer.

1. Do we have the necessary expertise in house?
2. Do we have the bandwidth (people times available hours) to get the details done right?  
3. What’s our opportunity cost?  We have the expertise and bandwidth on our team, but can our team be more profitably employed in other ways?

Details matter. With that, acknowledging the lesson of the “Hedgehog or Fox?” parable, organizations are at their best when they stick to their genius (what they’re really good at that also makes them money) and get help with the details outside their genius.