Focusing on the Details Isn’t Solving Your Problem

We all want to put on a good show. It’s what we do. It’s good for business, it’s good for the client, and audiences love a good show.

With this in mind, it’s no surprise that people in our line of work ask questions like, “How are we going to make THIS the best show ever?”

Don’t worry — I’m not here to tell you to do subpar shows. What I’m here for is to address a thought-gremlin that often lurks behind that positive desire to do the very best for clients.

What is that little monster? It’s thinking that every show is unique.

Why It’s a Problem

This kind of thinking gives you permission to reinvent the wheel with each show. If you extrapolate that to, say, 500 shows a year, that’s a lot of reinventing. And it’s a lot of waste.

Now, I’m not trying to dissuade you from being detailed-oriented. An important part of what we do is in the details. But I want to shine some light on the fact that companies can easily become so focused on the details that the big picture blurs into the background.

Why is this important? Because this approach encourages micromanaging. When the success of each show depends on micromanagement and/or the efforts of a single individual — what I call Hero Syndrome — then you’ve made micromanaging the norm. But micromanagement is never efficient.

How Systems and Processes Make ALL Your Shows Great

When you get hung up on the details, you end up needing more project managers involved earlier in each project. You need subject matter experts and department heads involved in each project. You need multiple layers of scrutiny on each project.

You end up with too many details assigned to too many people.

Each job ends up with scrutiny from, say, six different people before the show can move forward. But what happens when you don’t have six people available? The wheels fall off the wagon.

Micromanagement is a stopgap replacement for systems, processes, and people who look at each job the same so you get consistently good results.

So, how do you keep micromanagement at bay? Systems and processes are what get the job done!

Micromanaging has some value in that it signals you haven’t developed adequate systems and processes yet. As you investigate and uncover the reasons why, you can start to develop them, which will reduce micromanaging while still producing great shows.

Big-picture companies focus on systems and processes that take care of the details needed to make all their shows great.

It’s easy to think smaller shows have fewer details than larger ones, and therefore each show needs its own, unique reinvention. In reality, small shows have just as many details, even if the scale is different. So I have a saying: “There are no small shows, just small budgets.”

If you adopt this philosophy, it means all your shows get treated equally. You don’t care if it’s a $150,000 show or a $5,000 show, they all go through the same process with the same detailed steps. And they all get the same level of scrutiny — because that’s your system, and it’s highly efficient.

Conclusion

The crux of this mindset shift lies in changing the underlying question you ask. Instead of, “How can I make this the best show ever?” you ask, “How can I make all my shows better?”

It all ties back to scalability. Do you want to know how to run a more scalable business? Well, a scalable business is a big-picture business.

The devil’s not necessarily in the details. It’s in the way you think about them. Are details handling your business, or has your business got a handle on them?