Sweat the Small Stuff

In 1982, James Q. Wilson introduced his “broken windows” theory of neighborhood decline in the pages of The Atlantic. The criminologist famously argued that by leaving litter, graffiti, and other urban detritus unattended, authorities signal a lack of concern that tempts miscreants to commit more serious violations. Now a business author is suggesting that companies are similarly vulnerable. A stained carpet in the office or a burned-out reading light on an airplane may seem inconsequential. But when management ignores such trivial irritations, it is effectively telling employees or customers that they don’t matter. Such unconcern can depress morale or drive away business, says Michael Levine, who interviewed criminologists, management experts, and ordinary workers and consumers about how tiny offenses influence their perceptions of companies. An organization’s true priorities are revealed by the small stuff, explains Levine, whose book Broken Windows for Business will be published by Warner in the fall. The corporate manual may trumpet the message, “We are all one team,” but the rank and file know better when they see broken vending machines going unrepaired while the executive dining room functions like a Michelin-starred restaurant. “There’s a significant psychological impact to dingy surroundings—to stained carpets and broken toilets,” says Levine, founder of a Los Angeles–based public relations firm. “You can’t convince employees that you love and care about them if you’re sending psychic signals that you don’t.” Attention—or inattention—to detail affects service, too. Outsourcing, for example, is reviled for inflicting major pain on workforces; but it also causes plenty of minor injuries to customers, Levine says. “You have a problem with your Internet provider, so you call the help line and you get Bangladesh,” he says. “They don’t speak English well; you can barely understand them. But call sales and you get a woman in Texas. That tells you what really matters to the company.” In fact, the worst broken windows are often broken people, Levine says. Customers who are ill-treated by a poorly trained associate, or employees working side by side with someone clearly incompetent, surmise that the business doesn’t respect them. And their anger spreads outward: from the unacceptable employee to the manager who hired him, to the person who trained him, to the manager who hired the trainer, and so on. Levine recommends that managers eject poor performers as quickly as possible, letting everyone affected know the problem has been dealt with. That may prove unpopular among some employees in the short run, but in time they will appreciate the improved environment. “When [former New York City mayor Rudolph] Giuliani went after the squeegee men and the turnstile jumpers, people called him a bully; they called him racist,” Levine says. “But his actions had a positive impact on the quality of life in New York City.” Companies frying bigger fish—problems with earnings or ethics, for example—may be less sympathetic to such entreaties. But toilets and parking lots and waiting times matter, Levine insists. “Leaders who don’t get that will never build truly great companies,” he says. “Companies need to do whatever it takes to fix those bad little things before they become much, much bigger.”

Sweat the Small Stuff

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