1% Marginal Gain

The idea of “aggregation of marginal gains” has brought unique revolution in some sports. Now the question remains, could the same strategy be adopted to experience change in everyday life? The principle of marginal gains is all about minor improvements in any process enhancing major results when all small changes are added together. It can be evidently understood thru an astonishing case of British cycling team.

When Sir Dave Brailsford came up as head of British Cycling in 2002, the squad had almost no account of victory: British cycling team had earned not more than single gold in 76 years record. The pendulum of success dramatically swinged to opposite direction under Brailsford’s leadership. British cycling team claimed seven out of ten gold medals available in 2008 Olympics.

Brailsford approach was simple as Synergy effect, he believed that if the riders improved every sphere related to cycling by just 1 %, then those small upgrades would yield cumulative result. They began by making small change in things like: the diet of riders, training schedule, weight of the tires and the micro parts of the bike. They desperately examined minor assets where they could make 1% change and leave no areas in exception. Even they consider the comfortable pillows, massage gel and the best way to wash hands to avoid itching and communicable diseases.

Almost every habit that we acquire throughout life whether it’s good or bad are actually conditioned by some small choices over time. But we usually pay no heed to such trivial matters when making big changes. People are often cultured to regard any change worthful only if it happen in larger scale or it has some visible outcomes. In case of controlling smoking habit, improving relationship, building business or academic improvement, we seek for some huge improvements that are almost hard to meet up. Instead, improving by one percent may not yield immediate results at times, yet could guarantee sustainable changes with minimum effort and best pattern choice.

The improving pattern can be built on three basic ground; Firstly, the way of doing any work (process), secondly the state of performer body or mind and lastly the assets or thing you are working on or with. As bad habits and failures are result of thousands of wrong choices, it can also be altered by similar thousands of right choices.