(1 minute read)
“If you get 1% better each day for 1 year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done. This is why small choices don’t make much of a difference at the time, but add up over the long-term.”
JAMES CLEAR – AUTHOR, ‘ATOMIC HABITS’
Whether your goal is to develop personally, or professionally, the very ‘sweet carrot’ of exponential growth can play on your mind. It’s like finding the fabled gold of King Solomon’s Mine – yet just as elusive.
In addition to the difficulty in achieving any form of exponential growth, lies the challenge of a) planning for it, and b) sustaining it (without collateral damage along the way).
A more reliable and trusted method of growth and development is incremental growth, where individuals and/or organisations aim for steady week-on-week, or month-on-month improvements on existing performance metrics.
Any form of growth can prove challenging – hence the term ‘growing pains’.
Rapid, or exponential growth may sound attractive, but it quickly exposes any flaws and tests whether your systems and processes are robust enough to handle more customers, employees, sales, etc.
In contrast to the challenges of exponential growth, incremental growth and gains can be monitored and managed more closely, allowing you to make any necessary adjustments or changes in a proactive manner – rather than reacting to sudden and immediate needs caused by larger shifts.
The key to setting incremental growth goals is to gradually improve your metrics by percentage points, month-on-month. While these gains may seem small at first, over time they compound and grow in momentum to lead to much larger long-term growth.
The principle of incremental gains is just as relevant for the leader or manager striving to improve team performance, or decrease wastage, as it is for the individual – who may be striving to improve personal sales performance or sharpen their sporting performance.
“Inch-by-inch it’s a cinch. Yard-by-yard it’s hard.”