I've returned to various childhood homes and found neighborhoods once characterized by white picket fences, station wagons and small shops transformed into rough, rundown and unsafe areas. These transformations did not happen overnight. They were very gradual, involving a process that law enforcement has dubbed the "broken window effect." The same thing can happen in a business or your personal life. Imagine a perfect Lake Wobegon neighborhood, where everything is above average. One day, a baseball goes through a window, and the owner decides not to reglaze right away. Then, because that house looks a bit shabby, a neighbor leaves a junked car on the street. Then a bit of graffiti isn't cleaned up. Folks let garbage pile up in yards. The disorder gives rise to discourtesy and, eventually, crime.
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