"Many people will often have a distinction in their mind between big things and little things, but in reality the little things lead to big things."
The idea that you can separate little things from big things is a huge mistake. Big things, for the most part, are little things that never get taken care of.
One is something that hasn't grown yet, the other is something that's been let grow without being taken care of.
All of this is connected to lack of communication, which could be a missing part of a company's culture, or something missing in the means a company uses. In our technological age, communication should be one of the things that isn't a problem within a company. Of course we've got to go beyond that to clear communication, but nothing has to be left sitting on the table that turns into a mountain for a company.
In relationship to little things, we're talking about that which people sit on and let eat at them, and seethe and fester under the surface. That's what causes the many problems that become mountains when they aren't deal with in the beginning.
Why is communication in these instances so important? People are like gardens; they have to be watered. But in the case of little problems, the watering that leads them to become huge is the lack of communicating about them and addressing them. Lack of communication and openness is what waters little problems and turns them into big problems. That's one of the reasons Kelleher said he never let an idea that was presented within the company go longer than a week without getting an answer one way or the other to it.
A reason why these things are let go is because when they're looked at in their early stages, they don't seem so big. Yet when you don't look at little things as important, it can lead to destruction within people's lives and the company when they're not taken as important.
We must learn to discipline ourselves to not let little things slip by us. It's impossible to see what these can grow into when they're left alone. Leave them alone and you'll find out in unpleasant ways how something so small can become so big.
In the end, as Kelleher says, don't make a distinction in your mind between little and big things. They're two parts of a whole, at different stages of growth. Deal with them when they're small and you'll take care of the majority of huge problems that can endlessly arise at companies that don't keep the channels of communication open and concerns addressed.
Other Herb Kelleher Sources:
Herb Kelleher on the Record, Part 1
Belief Model for The Leadership of Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines)
Herb Kelleher, Chairman, CEO and President, Southwest Airlines
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