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Be Thorough

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Be Thorough

Be Thorough

It’s not a word you hear much anymore.  At a quick glance, it looks like the preposition “through.”

And given our society’s propensity for a “point and click” existence, “thorough” is being relegated to the sidelines of business.

But if you want to be successful in life and business, be encouraged to embrace it.

Merriam-Webster defines it as follows:

  • marked by full detail
  • careful about detail
  • complete in all respects
  • having full mastery (as of an art)

Being Thorough – A Practical Lesson

I was exposed to the concept of being “thorough” at a young age.  When I was around 7 or 8 years old, my Mom asked me to sweep the patio outside the back sliding door.  The patio had a 10 foot by 20 foot concrete floor.  It was partially enclosed – but mostly open.  It had all of our bikes; some chairs; a metal, push-pedal fire engine; a rocking horse, and various other play items.  And it would get dusty.  Very dusty.  So, an occasional sweeping was in order.  And, since I had already mastered picking up my toys and putting them in a toy box, I guess my Mom thought it was time for me to advance my industrial working career.

My reward?  As soon as I was done sweeping the patio, I could play outside.  So, with the prospect of playtime standing between me and my task, I jumped right in.  Yeah, it was hard to handle the broom at first.  It was twice as big as me.  But after knocking some of the bikes over in a domino kind of way, I quickly learned how to get that big broom under control.

I would have finished faster, but it was hard to clumsily circumnavigate that big broom around all of those bike tires, the fire engine, rocking horse, and various other toys.  But being the quick study that I was, I think I managed to finish the mammoth task in all of about 5 minutes.  Proud of my broom-pushing prowess, I reported into my boss (e.g., Mom) that I was done and would be summarily moving onto play time now.

“Ok, she retorted.  Let me see how you did.”  So, my Mom walked outside the back sliding door onto the patio and stood looking at my work with utter amazement.

The Afternoon From Heck

Amazement.  I did read my Mom’s reaction correctly: Utter amazement.  All she said was this: “You didn’t do a thorough job.”  She was amazed that I would be trying to pass off my task as a job well done.  At my young age, I had a hard time processing my new vocabulary word of the day: thorough.

But I did understand the functional gist of it better after she explained things to me.  The edict?  She broke it down to me in simple terms: “You have to sweep the patio all over again.”  When I heard her say that, she might have well said “You probably won’t be playing outside this afternoon.”  So, what do you do when you are a young boy looking at the prospect of being denied play time?  All the while you can hear your friends cavorting and having a great old time on the street out front?  You know what you do: You throw a tantrum.  And, so I did.  The best one I could muster.

A Lesson Learned

Looking back, I don’t think any of this caught my Mom by surprise.  In a providential parenting type of way, I was being molded.  And to save you time, I’ll wrap up the story.

  • As mentioned, I did have to sweep the patio again.  “Take 2” involved me taking a little more time.  I resolved to get a little closer to the bike tires and other items.  I needed to do a better job since, apparently, my shift supervisor was going to be hard-nosed about this sweeping project.
  • This too would fail inspection.  Seeing how I was being a little slow on the uptake, my Mom gave me a hint as to her expectation.  It turned out, she wanted me to wheel everything off the patio and sweep it sans all the items.  “Well, why didn’t she tell me this is the first place?” I thought.
  • “Take 3” involved sweeping the patio a 3rd time – after taking all of the items off the patio.  However, the task master (e.g., my Mom) was still not pleased with this version either.  She commented something along the lines of how she could see all of the broom’s brush strokes in all of the dust I left behind.
  • Then, my Mom showed me how to use a broom.  Which involved many strokes – in the same direction – and overlapping each previous stroke – both behind and alongside.  Ugh.  Obviously, our broom must have been defective since it didn’t remove every speck of dust on the first stroke.
  • “Take 4” was finally completed – at last.  Lesson(s) learned.

Life (and Business) Application

I learned a very long and painful lesson that fateful (providential) day.

Whatever you do, in life and business, do it thoroughly.

John Wooden is credited with a tongue-in-cheek version of this same principle: “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

I learned an important lesson.  But, I wasn’t miraculously cured of the human propensity to skim over uncomfortable things.  My Junior High shop teacher, Harve Callaghan, had his own saying: “Haste makes waste.”  And literally, if you fail to follow the old shop adage of “Measure twice and cut once,” your haste will make waste.  So much so, that you might have to start your wood project over after messing up the first one (which I did).

The Best Approach

By the time I got to college, I felt I was a pretty solid convert.  Since then, I try to approach every project, task, and client engagement with an eye towards being thorough.  This means when building business application models, I try to identify every possible scenario.  Asking 100 “what ifs.”  Trying to figure out how something might go, and then determining whether we have all of our bases covered.  And, so-on.

Take Your Time

One of the keys to leading a successful organization is being thorough.  This means …

  • Carefully defining all aspects of your customer experience.
  • Having answers ahead of the questions.
  • Working ahead and covering and/or eliminating pitfalls before you and your team get there.

Everything you do should be done thoroughly and completely.  In life and business, oftentimes, time is of the essence.  But this doesn’t mean sacrificing quality in the interest of time.

Take your time.  Do it right.  Be thorough.

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About the Author:

Ken Moll is the Principal and Founder of Blue Elevator®. With professional experience spanning four decades, Ken has a breadth of foundational business knowledge rarely found – making him part of an elite class of professionals. Ken's passion is helping clients of Blue Elevator® get their “business to the next level™.”