I first became aware of the idea of "marginal gains" from the world of sport, it was the mantra of two amazing British coach's who made it their guiding philosophy to execute global success. Sir Clive Woodward and Sir Dave Brailsford were sporting pioneers who led the way in the ruthless pursuit of progressive marginal gains or what became known as the 1% philosophy.
Brailsford who was responsible for turning a failing British Cycline team from also rans to world beaters for decades explains;
"The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of, that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.
"There's fitness and conditioning, of course, but there are other things that might seem on the periphery, like sleeping in the right position, having the same pillow when you are away and training in different places.
"They're tiny things but if you clump them together it makes a big difference.” It was this attention to detail to every aspect of the project that proved to be ultra successful. I took this approach into the team I was leading at Barbour ABI and working with talented individuals like Sharon Mahoney, James Lyall and Rebecca Pedler, we were able to break down our objective into multiple action points and look for 1% improvement in every variable. 1% improvements everywhere in the business add up to significantly good results!
My point is, not everything you do has to be revolutionary in itself, we can all look to improve performance, be more effective, deliver better and quicker, but there has to be a starting point.
Look at this screenshot, it's a real life project, a 27million triangle model, 10% of your model weight is sat in these benches, they are the reason your team sit looking at a loading screen, wasting time, growing frustrated, if you had remedied this at the start of the project, could this have been your first 1% improvement.
Digital Content Manager, Toronto FC at MLSE (Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Partnership)
5moVery informative, many transferable skills!