Really professional practice requires attention to detail

One of the thoughts that occurred to me when visiting the Paralympics yesterday is the importance of attention to detail in giving people confidence. This succession of photos follows the process in the Aquatics Centre by which the swimmers’ personal belongings are dealt with. They take off their top clothes when preparing to swim and put them in a box numbered with their lane. After they’ve set off on their swim, a line of volunteers marches out in order with a new box for each lane. They stand by the full box, turn, deposit the new empty box for the next swimmer, pick up the full box, turn in synchrony and march off to the dressing room where the property is deposited for the swimmer when they’ve finished their swim. It’s not exactly military, but it is extremely carefully organised for the benefit of the people they are supporting, the swimmers.

And every main sponsor's logo is displayed once in every series of boxes, interleaved with the Paralympics logo.

 

The whole site reflects this kind of attention to detail, and gives you confidence that everything is working and will work as it should, from the transport for mobility impaired people, to the signposting and information.

I’ve felt the same when attending Disneyworld. The sheer professionalism of picking up the litter, guiding people round and everything happening like clockwork is a sign of effective management and professional practice, even with staff might in other settings be quite difficult to manage.

Seeing this sort of thing is evidence, for me, of the importance of attention to detail in all of our professional practice, including social work professional practice.