Or at least from the grave diggers! I was out on my morning constitutional walk in a comparatively small town when I passed the local cemetery and noticed the guys at work. They were preparing a grave for an internment later that day.

As is my habit, I stopped for a chat in the knowledge that I would always learn something… and a day without learning is a day without wine!

I naturally found out heaps, none of which I will bore you with now. (Other than to reveal that, because of the low water table, they often had to remove the coffin after the mourners had left. This was to pump the water out of the grave to prevent the coffin from floating so they could bury it properly!)

As the guys chatted to me about the ins and outs of their livelihood I couldn’t help but notice that they never stopped “touching up” and “tidying” the grave site.

Here and there was a barely noticeable clod of earth on the artificial grass mat around the gravesite, the mat was slightly crumpled here and bulged there and didn’t overlap quite right there. As they discovered each barely noticeable imperfection one of them would correct it.

I was in awe; I marvelled at their complete attention to making sure that the job they had done was as close to perfect as possible.

It was patently obvious that they had pride in their job, real pride.

Would other people have noticed or cared about these smallest of imperfections?

Most probably not… but the guys would have!

And it made me think. How much do we, or our team, members care about the smallest details? Do we ignore the “not very obvious” imperfections in the way we deliver our products or services? Is near enough good enough?

Or do we have pride in or work?