Was pondering last time about how some small stuff becomes inadvertently important, relative to its actual contribution to a project. 

Small stakes for marginal (if any) gain I’d guess you describe them. It set off a train of thinking about how to make a call on the littler things - and there are clearly two camps here: one that you need to sweat the big stuff and ignore the details. And the polar opposite, that you can’t ignore the minutiae.

But instead of another moan about project-deliverables - which are transitory annoyances (well, mostly) - if you swapped the theme instead to small slights on your team (or your clients, come to that), that’s where really problems being to bloom and ballon. 

The only time I guess I would say ‘don’t ignore the small stuff’ is when it comes to cultures, the how-we-do-things at your workplace. People notice slights, however much they’d protest otherwise. It’s a short, steep and slippery slope to disrespect which I’d take a guess no-one appreciates. 

It turns leaders from the job of ‘oversight’ - in taking the responsibility for the big picture, into forgetting that picture is made of people who you’ve suddenly overlooked. It’s an invidious blind spot as well. People can be remarkably short-sighted (no offence to the myopic. I’m one of them) when it comes to even recognising the oversight and slight.

Coming back full circle to the previous post, and thinking about what’s really important to the project, actually, the people are. We’ll put up with some of the nonsense that naturally comes with rubbing people together to get things done. Can’t please all the peoples, etc.

But being an overlooker (or worse, being framed as that kind of person) is not a great look. Of course, of course, managing teams is hard.
But having to motivate people who’ve mentally left the project, that’s harder. Sometimes it’s not the projects that kill the hope. It’s the inconsequential, small thing for someone you forgot that gifts you the bigger loss.