Details Matter- Focus on Them

Details Matter - Focus on Them

Recently I ordered a book from Amazon to give as gift and it arrived damaged. The book was loose in the box, allowing it to slide around and impact the sides of the box. Sealed air pockets were ineffectively laid on top of the book. I did order another book and returned the damaged one, but consider the wasted time and cost that could have been avoided if the book was properly packaged in the first place. The first picture below shows the packaging and the damaged book.

Contrast this packaging with the second picture showing a wine glass , packed only in a cardboard surround. For both items, sufficient packaging material types were available to ensure the packages would arrive undamaged. However for the book, there was a lack of focus on the details or steps involved with the packaging process, resulting in added cost and wasted time.

Maintaining focus on the details is also extremely important in effectively managing projects. You can have sufficient resources, but a lack of focus on the details related to project tasks, can result in added time and cost and most importantly potentially unhappy customers .