How Little Things Make A Big Difference

In recent weeks, we talked about why to do lists don't work, and then showed the opposite view by offering some ideas about how to use a to do list effectively. Last week, we addressed the source of burnout and promised to address satisfaction and accomplishment this week. Here goes one take on the subject - not the only take, nor an exhaustive one, just another view, one that may be useful.

Little Things Can Have Big Impact: Getting the Right Thing Done Right

Here's a personal example of what happens if you don't know the value of what you are doing or why it matters. When I was growing up, my father owned a little two man machine shop. He was a tool and die maker and by all accounts did great work.

He went bankrupt a couple of times, not because of lack of skill, but because of lack of business sense. That's where I enter in.

Dad used to have me come to the shop on weekends to help get things done. Sometimes it was pretty simple work, like cleaning up scrap filings and other messes built up during the week. Sometimes he had me make simple parts for him

On this one Saturday, he sat me down in front of a drill press and put a box of 5,000 plastic tubes in front of me. Each little tube was about three inches long, and each one needed a hole drilled in the middle, equidistant between the two ends.

With not much more instruction than what I just gave you here, he told me to get going and that we could go home when I was done. At 15, I didn't need much motivation to move quickly and get out of there.

So, I powered my way through those little plastic tubes. Drill. Drill. Drill. And then the drill bit broke, so I had to go tell him and he set up another one in the press. Drill. Drill. Drill. And another one broke. I was about 1,500 pieces through when the second one broke.

Now he was mad. So he sat me down with a third new bit in place and told me to show him what I was doing. So I powered the bit through the top of the tube. From the way he freaked out, you would have thought I had just killed his favorite kitten or something.

That's when he provided the missing bit of information. I wasn't supposed to be "drilling" holes in these tubes. I was supposed to be "tapping" them. Tapping means that the bit was not a drill after all, but something that looks like a drill bit but actually puts a thread inside the hole that it makes.

Ooops.

As I powered through the first 1,500 of these little tubes, I was pulling so hard on the handle that the tap functioned just like a drill instead. It put a nice clean hole in each piece, but no thread. On top of that, powering through each one meant that when the tap bit broke through the top of the tube, it slammed into the inner side of the tube and put a nice little hole in it as well.

So now I had ruined 1,500 pieces in two ways - smooth holes instead of threaded opening, and a damaged inner surface which would disrupt the flow of whatever it was that was supposed to be going through the tube.

Ooops.

Of course, you can see that it would have been a clever thing for my Dad to explain what I was working on, what my part of the job entailed, and why it was important. That wouldn't have made me any the more happy to be spending my Saturday at the shop again, but at least I would have understood what I was doing and why. And he would have gotten what he wanted from my work.

Ooops.

So back to your world. It could be that you are working on drilling holes in things that really should be tapped instead, and no one told you. It could be that the little tiny, insignificant tasks that you perform are the difference between something working, and something failing, between real success and also-ran OK.

If you are an executive or manager, flip this around: perhaps you have assigned something meaningful, something critical to your staff, but all you did was assign the task absent of sufficient context and meaning.

Kind of like that little weld on the space shuttle that blew up. After all, it was just a little weld. How could that matter?

In addition to the difference between what you are focused on (the Symbols of life) vs. why you want them (the Experience of life), there's another tiny thing that seems to matter. Meaning.

Most of us could use a greater experience of meaning in our lives, of being meaningful, of having what we do matter. Sometimes, Meaning comes with a capital M - say ending world hunger - and sometimes it is just a little "m," say helping a neighbor through a tough time.

And sometimes meaning comes just in knowing why tapping a hole matters and drilling one screws things up.

Next week, we will deepen this discussion considerably, turning from to do lists and getting things done, to life aspirations and the experience of meaning. In the meantime, ask yourself if you are drilling or tapping your way through life.

Please leave a comment or drop me an email if you have questions, observations or lessons of your own to share.

***

You can find out more about Russell Bishop at http://www.lessonsinthekeyoflife.com. Contact Russell at: [e-mail]

The author of Lessons in the Key of Life, Russell is an Educational Psychologist, professional life coach and management consultant, based in Santa Barbara California.

Comments

[cayuse]

I am the bubble, make me the SEA itself!

[bucksstar]

"tapping a hole matters and drilling one screws things up"


This does sum it all up indeed. I could have really used this advice through my formative years. It would have saved me a lot of anguish with the opposite sex.

[Ed and Deb Shapiro - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you Russell,

Little things men a lot. Touching post.

With joy,

Ed

[GrainOSand]

Big Wave talking to small wave, "Little wave, why are you so sad?"

Small Wave said, "I feel distressed. Other waves are so Big whereas I am so small. Other waves are so powerful whereas I am puny..."

Big Wave said, "It is because you have not seen clearly your original nature that you have sorrow."

Small Wave said, "Am I not a wave? Then what am I?"

Big Wave said , "The Wave is only temporary form of your nature. In actuality you are water."

Small Wave said. "Water?"

Big Wave said, "Once you perceive clearly that your nature is water, you will no longer be obsessed with the form of the wave, and thus you will no longer be in sorrow."

Small Wave eventually understood and started to laugh happily.
http://www.zenmaths.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

or...

[Russell Bishop - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks, Grain-O-Sand: your comments here and elsewhere are always mindful and I thoroughly enjoy the lens you bring to the question of the moment.

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

This is Zen.

Can't add anything. Would be a disaster.

[Mike Vardy]

The little things really do make a big difference.

In fact, the little thing of reading your article thoroughly prevented me from writing something here that would've been terribly inane.

[Ron Mirenda - Huffpost Blogger]

Russell,
Your post reminds us that all the little things contribute to creating that one, significant component of life: Meaning. Whether it has a small or large m, everyone wants to believe that what they do has meaning, that it matters to someone, including themselves. Otherwise, why exist, why do? I, for one, try to find meaning in all that I do. I want to know it matters to someone. When I help a foster child forget his unhappy background, even for a few hours, it means something to him--and to me, and it gives deeper meaning to my life. Many of us are at the stage in our lives when doing a number of small things for others is very easy, but makes a huge difference. So, why doesn't each of us think of one small thing, one small detail a day, that will make a difference in someone's life and put it into action? Then we can all make a difference.
Ron

[morebirthdays]

It's true! The little things really can make a big, big difference. All you need to do is ask yourself what really matters and do it. The American Cancer Society's movement for more birthdays offers a way to do something meaningful with just a few clicks of a mouse: Join the movement to fight back against cancer at morebirthdays.com. It's free to do, and it only takes a minute to make a difference.

[PengieP]

Excellent advice!