Neatness against chaos
The famous ancient Greek philosopher, the founder of the Cyrenaic school, Aristippus dedicated one of his 24 guidelines to neatness. With a description of this quality, he completed the moral and ethical Code. Its goal is to make life easier for a person and help in business, communication and relationships. We turn to the classics of philosophy and draw useful lessons.
Guideline XXIV — NEATNESS
Be neat, tidy and well-organized.
The word “neatness” comes from the Latin nitidus, which means “polished, elegant, trim”.
The quality of being organized, as the most effective business principle, is evidenced by the experience of successful companies and corporations.
According to HR managers, neatness and organizational skills were in the top lines of the rating of the inherent qualities of employees. This is understandable, because any employer dreams of employees who are able to be accurate, follow the schedule just as instructions and do not violate deadlines.
Another aspect of neatness is caution in communication. An employee who does not hurt or offend anyone, formulates thoughts clearly and explicitly, does not get carried away by emotions and does not touch on taboo topics, will inspire more confidence among colleagues.
Neatness and accuracy ratings
Let’s consider an example when neatness and organizational skills are critical to consumers.
When ordering a product, the buyer wants to receive it without damage and on time. Those companies that managed to realize this desire of the client became famous all over the world: Pony Express, DHL, TNT, FedEx, UPS.
Do you remember the touching video of FedEx, in which the main idea is as follows: neatness, organizational skills and responsibility of the company for the client’s belongings? The video tells the story of a little girl who left her favorite toy at the hotel. The maid takes the forgotten turtle to the FedEx collection point, and when the family returns from a trip, they see a parcel at the door of the house and a departing car with the company logo.
There are no unimportant details!
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Attention to detail is the key to neatness. The success of Moleskine is built on this. The company decided to completely replicate the design and functionality of handmade notebooks used in the 1930s by Hemingway, Picasso and other famous personalities. In 1997, the owners of the small Milanese publishing house Modo&Modo registered the Moleskine brand. Starting with a batch of 5,000 pieces, after 7 years the publishing house sold 4.5 million notebooks. What is the secret of success?
In addition to the retro idea, buyers of Moleskine notebooks were attracted by the attention to detail, convenience and the ability to have a neat notebook. Connoisseurs of neatness voted for Moleskine with their wallet.
In the photo: 8 years later after the launch of Moleskine, the investment fund SG Capital Europe paid 62 million euros for a 75% stake to Modo&Modo publishing house.
Neatness formation mechanism
How to ensure neatness? Work on yourself by repeating the same actions every day and turning them into a habit. For example:
- put things in their place every day (do not put them in one pile, as if “for later”);
- write down the plan in the notebook and check its implementation every evening;
- devote a certain amount of time to each task in order to complete it carefully and without haste;
- check what has been done so far — both in general and in detail;
- keep order, avoiding backlog;
- choose your words carefully so as not to offend the interlocutor.
A neat person will get a lot of bonuses: a qualitative result in business, conflict-free communication, time and effort saved, cleanliness and comfort in everyday life. And finally — order in life. Aristippus, when dedicating a separate guideline to neatness, believed that it was this useful quality that would help a person find the right path in life and realize the greatest ideas.
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