There’s a great story about Sir Peter Jackson on the Hobbiton set of The Lord of the Rings. When they found the location for Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand, the central area near the Shire had a couple of apple and pear trees.
However, Tolkien’s Shire had plum trees.
So, Peter Jackson had his crew buy and wire plums onto the trees.
The scene with those trees lasted less than six seconds. There was no way anyone would notice the plums even. And even if they did, it’s unclear if they would have cared.
But Peter Jackson did. He wanted it to be true to Tolkien’s vision. And he cared enough to sweat the details.
So much of leadership is setting a high and clear bar. That bar, then, becomes the culture because “this is how we do things here.”
This was Peter Jackson setting that bar for the Lord of the Rings crew.
A Learning a Day 