"The devil made me do it!" – Geraldine (Flip Wilson)

If you’re over 40, this single statement will make you smile. It will create a flashback to Flip Wilson’s character of Geraldine and her innovation in the process of "shirking personal responsibility" by blaming the devil.

Thirty years after Miss Geraldine’s fifteen minutes of fame, it is the belief of this writer, that the devil is still being used as a tool to shirk personal and organizational responsibility.

To test this hypothesis, introduce to your organization, your best Vision for the future, an innovation in process or suggest a new product or service. On a near immediate basis, from the darkened halls of your status quo – some in your organization will chant – "great idea but, the devil’s in the detail".

To entrepreneurs and innovators, this statement appears to be merely another hurdle to overcome in their passion for the new. Entrepreneurs are optimists – people focused on the future with the resolve to create it, change agents. The marketplace, competition and opportunity drive them. Change is good!

To the bureaucrat (a traditional government official) or bureaucrat-lite (a private sector employee envious of the government’s infrastructure, pace, stability and security, but forced to operate in a competitive system), change is bad. It is to be avoided – the status quo is to be protected. "The devil is in the detail" is not just an observation but also is a wake up call to alert the sleeping staff that change has been suggested.

This is a battle cry. This statement is intended to unify the troops in their effort to snuff the breath out of this new initiative. It begins as a clandestine effort to sabotage the deal. The process includes smiling at the innovator and his / her new idea, feigning support and vigorously commencing best efforts to assure that "the devil is in the detail" is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Before we debate reaction to change, let’s verify that change is necessary.

If change is necessary, the traditionalists are putting your organizations at risk. Their efforts to slow or stop change, in effect, are sabotaging your ability to compete. Their efforts are counter to the best interest of your future.

If change is not good or necessary than the defenders of the status quo are to be acknowledged and thanked. Their protection of today is a noble effort. Leaders should reward their effort to protect the status quo and root out the traitors that continue to suggest the new.

Max DePree noted "the first role of a leader is to define reality". The key issue, the reality, in this debate is whether or not change is good and necessary. By analyzing the marketplace a few facts for tomorrow can be established.

Yesterday’s world was patriarchal and the patriarchs owned the businesses. A limited number of manufacturers / distributors offered products and services to mass markets. The system worked first to benefit the business / system and secondarily to provide value to the consumer.

Tomorrow’s world will be defined by technology, a global marketplace, intense competition and controlled by the most sophisticated consumer ever. Simply stated, tomorrow the consumer is in charge. Every product and service must first bring value to the consumer. Secondarily, benefits will flow to the manufacturer, distributor and provider.

Remember businesses exist to serve customers – when, where and how they want to be served. "Customers do not see it as their job to ensure manufacturers a profit." (Peter Drucker)

The new consumer has established excellence as the minimum standard. From that base (s)he requires constant improvement that assures better and cheaper products and faster service. If your organization can sustain the innovations needed to meet this standard then do nothing. Otherwise you must CHANGE.

Webster helps us shape the balance of this discussion. He analyzes the meanings of the words.

devil – n. 2: an evil spirit: DEMON

demon – n. 1: an evil spirit 2: an evil or undesirable emotion, trait or state

detail – n. 1: extended treatment of or attention to particular items 2: a part of a whole

Detail is neutral / inanimate. It is merely the parts whose sum makes up the whole. Detail is. The end result, good or bad, is nothing more than assembling the parts – the detail.

The devil is animated, alive – a spirit. The devil can influence the result. (S)he can assure success or failure in assembling the parts of your latest innovation. Detail is not the devil and the devil is not detail. The devil is a manipulator of detail.

If when you introduce a vision for the future, you hear, "be careful, the devil is in the detail", take heed. This is your organization rallying around the status quo. It is a battle cry to legitimize an anti-innovation movement.

The individual making this statement, if innocent, is merely expressing doubt. Educate, nurture and coach them. Help them stretch their comfort zone. If that person is sinister, (s)he is establishing an agenda, one diametrically opposed to your vision. It may be time to exorcise the devil – not the detail!

If an employee in an organization intentionally destroyed a $2,000.00 PC, the leader / manager would fire them on the spot. Yet these same managers / leaders will stand by and watch employees intentionally destroy innovation and vision – the future of the company!

If you need further reinforcement on this hypothesis, consider Adam and Eve – the apple was detail…