Of Pillows, Gold Medals and the 1% Plan
The year was 2002. The sport of Cycling in Great Britain was in a place where many businesses often are: the zone of consistent under-performance. For a country that prided itself on its sporting culture, Britain had little to show by way of rewards in Cycling. After nearly 80 years of competing in cycling in Olympics, they had just one Gold medal. If you’ve managed a business – or a team - you can probably relate to this situation: You want to win, but success seems elusive. And with every month of missed targets, the mountain of success seems even more difficult to climb. And that’s exactly how it was for Cycling in Britain.
And then, magic happened. A cycling coach (with an MBA!) called Dave Brailsford took over as the performance director. And he unleashed a transformation program that resulted in Britain winning seven out of the ten Gold medals in Cycling at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. How did that happen? What did Sir Dave do?
His philosophy was simple. He reckoned that if you worked on small improvements and marginal gains, the end result could be a big, big difference. As he explained it, “"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".
So pillows were carefully chosen to ensure they gave the cyclists a comfortable night’s sleep. And those pillows were carried to competitions around the world, so that the cyclists had a good night’s sleep before the race. A Doctor was hired to teach the cyclists how to wash their hands – to make sure they were germ-free – thereby reducing the chances of illness. The motto was think small, not think big. Think improvement, not perfection. And all those teeny-weeny 1% improvements got compounded and resulted in Olympic glory for British Cycling.
What worked for Britain could work for you and me too. In our businesses. And in our lives. Making small, seemingly insignificant changes can make a big difference in results. Faced with a big challenge or a seemingly insurmountable hurdle, we all tend to look for that one big idea, that magic bullet, that could change our fortunes. Truth is, the magic bullet seldom exists.
Better to focus on small improvements. All those 1% things. Things that everyone across the organization can do. If you can do a hundred of those 1% improvements – the results are bound to show. Sooner, rather than later.
Great businesses are built on a bedrock of flawless execution. An obsession with doing the small things right. Time after time. Get that obsession.
After finding success in the Olympics, Sir Dave turned his team’s attention to Cycling’s premier event - the Tour de France. No one from Britain had ever won it. Ever. They made small improvements. But results didn’t immediately follow. The problem? They were focused too much on the bells and whistles, on the periphery and not the core. So they took a step back, identified the factors critical for success in an endurance race like the Tour de France, and looked for 1% improvements in those areas. Result? In the past five years, a Brit has won the Tour de France four times.
So what are your 1% improvement opportunities? Sometimes, a pillow can make you a Cycling Champion. Find that pillow. Fast!
