Why Marginal Gains is only half the story

Marginal Gains. It’s such a compelling story. It sounds so sensible. Do 100 things 1% better and get 100% improvement. The Dave Brailsford logic from British cycling team has become a staple for how sporting analogies are applied to business.

Marginal gains though are only half the story. How I see marginal gains being used is in the daily activity - the tiny improvements every day. Nothing wrong with that, but it needs context.

A passing fad?

I listened to a talk this week between Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) and Andrew Hill at the Financial Times.

I was struck by one debate around being more human in the workplace. It started with the observation that during Covid many businesses were discovering the human touch. And the speculation that when the acute part of the crisis finally recedes will businesses revert back to a more profits first approach to business.

The New Year rolls through, vaccines ready to go, teams hopefully refreshed after some time off over Christmas and all ready to go and tackle the New Years Big Bold Goals.

And then the UK flips back to a national lockdown. The kitchen table that was just cleared of the decorations is now being re-purposed for home school doubled up again with home working.

The only certainty is uncertainty. Time to take a deep breath, change gears and adapt to what we have. It’s hard to fight reality.

The Off Button

My wife always used to joke that she’s always looked for my off button and has still never found it.

This Christmas, I’m found it and will be flipping the switch today. If like me, it’s been a rollercoaster of a year then time to stop, reflect and recharge is vital. Especially if you want 2021 to be a big bold year of making things happen.

Who’s starting to feel festive? As well as down time over Christmas I’ve always found the period of reflection around the end of the year and the start of the days getting longer after Dec 21 the perfect breeding ground for ideas around setting big bold goals. How much time and space will you devote to this.

Who’s asking to join your team?

It's hard not to notice that thriving teams have a buzz around them.

The buzz of moving forward, of making meaningful progress towards goals that matter whilst having fun.

The infectious energy that gets created from a team in flow.

The Pride Bell

You never quite know what will resonate with other people. I did a talk and Q&A today on Be more Human with an audience of leaders for the Shared Services Forum annual leadership event.

When it comes to Big Bold Goals, whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can’t, you are right.

I used to think that belief appeared as if by magic - everything changed when I realised that you can create that belief deliberately, specifically and consciously.

Back in my corporate life I’d be sitting in the audience and at some point, the speaker, usually someone who’d been successful in either the sporting or business world, would say the words “You’ve just got to have belief”.

”Put people first and the results will follow”

For far too long, the mantra in business has been primarily about numbers and getting results. People have simply been expendable items, driven hard to get those results. The resulting "numbers driven” culture isn’t sustainable

Way back in the day, someone once said that if everyone in a team agrees on something, then why do we need all those people on the team. It was a reminder that we need diverse thoughts, ideas and opinions in order to be able to arrive at the best decisions possible.