PERSONAL & FINANCE
W
hen it comes to making improvements small, incremental gains really do add up. So says Jeff Haden who introduces us, this time out, to the one percent rule!
‘FULFILMENT PROVIDES THE MOTIVATION TO SEEK FURTHER IMPROVEMENT.’
It's really hard to make massive gains in skill and performance and talent, especially overnight. But it's fairly easy to make small changes every day.
Winning That was the approach taken in 2009 by Sir Dave Brailsford, who said he could build Britain's first-ever Tour de France winning team in four years with a three-pronged approach. One core element was strategy. Another was human performance – obviously on the bike, but also in terms of leveraging behavioural psychology and optimising the ‘work’ environment. The third was continuous improvement, or what Brailsford called the ‘aggregate of marginal gains’. His plan was to break down each individual component that could go into making a world-class cyclist and cycling team, and improve each of those elements by 1 percent. Not 20 percent. Or 10 percent. Or even 5 percent. Just 1 percent.
Progression In short? Think small, not big. Think progression, not perfection. Think small improvements to create a major improvement. As Brailsford said: By experimenting in a wind tunnel, we searched for small improvements to aerodynamics. By analyzing the mechanic's area in the team truck, we discovered that dust was accumulating on the floor, undermining bike maintenance. So we painted the floor white, in order to spot any impurities. We hired a surgeon to teach our athletes about proper hand-washing 4 4 | Construction Management | Summer 2021
Why brilliant leadership minds embrace the rule of 1 percent Make a major improvement by leveraging lots of small, easy wins so as to avoid illnesses during competition. We were precise about food preparation. We brought our own mattresses and pillows so our athletes could sleep in the same posture every night. We searched for small improvements everywhere and found countless opportunities. Taken together, we felt they gave us a competitive advantage.
Won Three years later, Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France (and an Olympic gold medal). Chris Froome won the Tour de France in three of
the next four years. In spite of the fact the team initially ignored core functions to focus on peripheral functions. ‘You have to identify the critical success factors and ensure they are in place,’ he said, ‘and then focus your improvements around them. That was a harsh lesson’. Like focusing on making small improvements to operational efficiencies when sales don't even cover fixed costs. Or focusing on making small improvements to logistics and fulfilment when product quality consistently fails to meet standard.
