Ampersand Answers: Handling the Details

Harmony is not the absence of details.
It is what happens when the details are handled early.

Rick Levine, Libra Horoscope 7.19.26 

The Question: 

How can I handle the details early? 

&mpersand Answers: 

Understand first that “handle the details early” is shorthand. It means: planning. 

And let’s be fiercely honest here. Some people are really good at it. I’m one of those. I was a stage manager, for goodness’ sake. If I could wrangle some eighty-odd people night after night, planning a party is a walk in the park. On the other hand (said the Libra,) there are some folks who start to get into the shower at 12:30 on the day of their lunch date which is at 12:30.  

We all know both kinds of people. They are the extremes, and there are all sorts of folks who are somewhere along the middle of the scale. The key, of course, is knowing where your skills are, and, even more importantly, where they’re not. 

You can handle all the details early from a platform of honesty—with yourself. And with anyone else on your team. Harmony creates itself when everyone is working from their best gifts, not their least gifts. 

If you’re the Chair of the group, start with a declaration that everyone gets to use their best gifts on this committee. List the tasks and divide them up according to everyone’s self-confessed abilities. Now, what about the icky tasks? You know as well as I do that there will be some. 

Pair up. That way each one will only have to use half of their lesser gifts. And do the icky ones first if you can. Harmony will tell you, in each case, how successfully you’re handling the details.