Episode 14: Attention to Detail
Welcome to another edition of “Around with Randall,” your weekly, ten-to-12 minute podcast, making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett.
It's great to have you back here for another day of “Around with Randall.” Today, I want to talk about the connection between something that happened recently in my house and things that I notice, and this is a generic observation, but it's so applicable and we'll make it connected to fundraising here at the end.
If you know me or you spend any time with me, you know, I like to tell a lot of stories. And sometimes those stories are about my own life, and particularly my family. My son who's seven came home just the other day with a pile of papers from school - and just to give you some context - Jay is a lot like his dad. And for those who know me, might say, “Poor little kid,” but he’s stuck with the DNA.
One of the things he does really well is math for a first-grader. He's kind of amazing. He does math in his head. It's adding and subtracting two, three, four-digit numbers to each other and it's multiplication and division already. He gets that from me and he likes numbers and he likes how they make sense. And half the time they make sense and he doesn't actually know why. And those are things I remember from my youth.
So it was kind of astonishing to his mother and me that he came home with a worksheet, a timed test of 28 equations. And these equations were five plus zero three minus two, very, very simplistic and things he's been doing for years. And he missed 14 of the 28. And, both his mother and I were shocked until we looked at the equations and the test with a little more detail. In one way, he almost got a hundred percent. You see, the math and the subtraction equations, the five-plus zero and the three minus two were interspersed.
So there was no pattern or they weren't broken apart. And. He had answered every one of them correctly if he'd have picked the right addition or subtraction. What we figured out fairly quickly is that it was a lack of attention to detail. He just thought he saw if it was add or subtract and it doesn't make any difference. He missed them.
Thus we've begun a process of really honing in on the idea of detail and the attention that it requires. And frankly, these are lessons I distinctly remember in my upbringing as well. Attention to detail in a fast-moving world is something we don't spend probably enough time talking about.
We're also jaded by the idea of what I call instant gratification as technology, as the access to that technology, and more importantly, the information or data that it can provide has sped up in the last ten- to-15 years, the speed at which we operate tends to speed up as well. And as a result, many times, we miss the details.
So what does attention to detail actually mean to me? Well, I think of it kind of in five basic descriptors that when we are someone who is, or we attempt to be someone, who is good or strong at the details, we're consistent with high-quality work, people know what to expect from us. In a very positive way we will learn from our mistakes, that we don't repeat the same ones over and over and over again, strong attention to detail means, “Hey, I'm not doing that again because I didn't like the end result when I didn't get it right the first time.”
Great attention to detail also or embodies trustworthiness. You know what you're getting from someone. Attention to detail in the best possible ways also probably is connected to a strong memory. Or maybe you don't have a great memory, but you have a great note-taking process so that it enhances your memory.
I'm one who probably depends mostly on my memory from what I see, hear, feel, touch and taste, but I can't say how many people I've met, who do a tremendous job when they take notes. Every meeting they're in and they can reference those.
And lastly, potentially retail experts are people who tend to be problem solvers. They get to solutions because they can see the problem more effectively.
So, how does this all relate to philanthropy? Well, I can't tell you how many times over my career I've run into scenarios and situations where the attention to detail has gotten me in trouble, or the organization in trouble, or clients in trouble. Let me give you a few examples. This idea, which is so important in the multi-moves management process and the development of relationships…general follow-up. I'm going to reach back out to you at this date, responding to emails, doing what you're going, doing, what you actually said you were going to do. That's really important in relationship-building. It gives credibility. It honors the person so potentially to, “Oh my gosh. I missed. I forgot to get back to them.”
That's a problem. Thank you letters either as a recipient or as the organization authored them. There's nothing more mystifying to me when there is a mistake in a thank you letter. I have examples galore where the salutation was wrong. Or the merge was incorrect. The raw data we're merging, maybe a batch from a gift processing and the amount that somebody gave or their tax deductibility was one row off in the merge, which meant everybody's letters were incorrect. There's nothing more embarrassing than wrong information in some type of thank you. Correspondence makes you look like you didn't care.
I've had scenarios and situations where gift agreements and proposals haven't had the attention to detail and there's facts wrong. And this is important because if we're doing our jobs correctly, we've soft-asked for permission to bring a gift opportunity or proposal to someone. And then it doesn't actually reflect what they said they wanted.
I've gotten in the habit over years - and I want to thank Microsoft for this - that when I do these kinds of proposals and gift agreements and other things, either for clients or on behalf of clients, you can go back and literally have the computer read back the document. And yes, it's time-consuming. It does alleviate though, when I hear it and there's a word missing or something of that nature, it alleviates embarrassment when I'm producing documents for clients.
And lastly, make sure you send emails to the right people. Every once in a while, I get an email and I don't know quite how because there's not a lot of Randalls in the world, but at the end of the day, I got somebody else's email cause they typed in RA and it goes, it's going to go to Ralph. Or if you got the wrong John or the wrong Susan. You need to double-check that, and that includes texting. So those are examples that we see, unfortunately, in our own world.
So what's the tactical in this case? The tactical is going to be more about you as an individual. What is it that you can do to create more attention to detail in your life? How can you be more effective at ensuring the small mistakes don't become glaring omissions or problems as you are developing relationships, both internally inside the organization and externally?
So, number one is to work at a slower pace. I've turned 50 recently, and I tell my son this cause his mind tends to work a little bit like mine. Sometimes my mind works faster than my mouth or my fingers when I type and I have to say to myself constantly, “slow everything down, slow everything down.” When I say work at a slower pace, it may be physically working at a slower pace. You could also be working at a slower pace mentally. Keeping up with yourself and keeping up with the work that you're doing.
Number two, focus on one thing at a time. One thing the Journal of Psychology did a study on or produced a report from a researcher that said that when you multitask your productivity diminishes by 80% or by 40%, excuse me, 40%. I love - and I've talked about this before - I’m inquisitive, intellectually curious when I'm watching a movie or show about doing some research around it. You know when there's a character mention, particularly for this historical film, who was that? What did they do? That's one kind of multitasking and I would argue would be okay because it’s not work-related. But if you're trying to do three things at once and it's costing you mistake after mistake after mistake, then just do one thing, put everything away in a pile and finish this. When I do the podcast, I'm only doing this. Focus on the one thing that you need to at that moment.
Make templates and lists. That's number three. I carry with me at all times my to-do list in my back pocket on note cards and I redo it every day so I don't forget things. If at all possible - and templates are great because once you've proofread them or reproof from them and made sure they're perfect, you can then use that template to be reused over and over to give yourself a self a chance or a feeling of assurity that it's not having small errors in it.
Number four, break down your projects. Don't just do the big picture. Do the little pictures. What are all the steps necessary to build out a successful long-term larger process? I remember my mom always talking about that. It was really important, not just to look at the big goal, but to look at all of the small goals that go along with it. And if you accomplish them in some ways, that gives you a great deal of confidence that you're not missing the small things. Project management software is great for this. I use it all the time to make sure that the small things are not being missed. So, develop multiple goals in this process.
And number five, have someone else overlook your work, review it, edit it. Don't be afraid to get someone else's opinion and to see if you're actually doing what you should be. Sometimes another set of eyes can make all the difference in the world. Attention to detail can be a difference-maker in the way people view you and the work that you do.
A couple of reminders. First and foremost, we post blogs constantly on the website, a minimum of two per week. This last week I believe there were four or five on a series about board orientation.
Check it out. HallettPhilanthropy.com. That's two L's and two T's. And HallettPhilanthropy.com for the podcast. If you find this helpful subscribe to it, it's on all the platforms. Share it with a friend or two, if you think that could be helpful to them. We try to keep it tactical - applicable to make your nonprofit and those in the nonprofit world more effective so that they can be successful.
And if you want to contact me and want to make a recommendation on a podcast that's podcast@hallettphilanthropy.com, or if you want to complain and say I'm crazy, or I missed something or I was totally wrong. We look at those. It's an important feedback loop. That's reeks, R E EK S @hallettphilanthropy.com.
Let me conclude, as I do each week for this particular podcast, that this is a noble, awesome responsibility that you have as a nonprofit leader or employee, or board member. Whatever you're doing to make your community a better place through philanthropy. It calls us to want to make a difference, to change the world, to fill holes, to make people's lives just a little bit better.
And that always brings me to my favorite all-time saying some people make things happen. Some people watch things happen. Then there are those who wondered what happened. Nonprofit work. What we do is about making things happen for people. We're wondering what happened. And I get up every day wondering how in the world I'm so lucky to be a part of that process, to be someone in a very, very, very small way, helping organizations and people make a difference for their community.
I hope you get up every morning, feeling that good too, because what you're doing is incredibly important and it's changing lives. And if someone doesn't tell you that today, then let me be the one. Because I appreciate what you're doing and how big of a difference you're making. Can't wait to see you next time here on “Around with Randall” and remember, make it a great day.