In a recent BizChat development session we were talking about marginal gains, the process of making small tweaks in lots of different areas to make great strides forwards. We talked about learning from outside our own industries to find new ideas. Later that afternoon I watched Stuart Broad being interviewed on his retirement from cricket. It struck me that there were some lessons from his career that would transfer to our businesses.
Drive and dedication beat talent
One comment that stood out was. ‘I know I’m not the most skilful player that ever lived.’ This from a man who is currently ranked 5th in the world for test match wickets and is described by many as a legend of the game. He went on to say that it was his drive and competitive spirit that allowed him to make the most of his talents. He also talked about having to be fully emotionally invested to succeed as a bowler.
Don’t we all need to be emotionally invested in what we do to succeed? But we also need to know that drive and dedication to improvement will propel us further than pure talent alone. How many highly successful people do you know who have been driven by a difficult start in life or a ‘disability’? For example Richard Branson. Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein share dyslexia. Their determination and unwillingness to make excuses should inspire us all.
Are you driven and determined enough to reach the top in your field?’
Learn from failures
Stuart Broad also talked about learning more from losing than winning. Early in his career he was hit for 6 in every ball of one over… if you know nothing about cricket it doesn’t get any worse than that for a bowler! Instead of letting it destroy him he used it as a learning experience. He admits to having had a lack of focus and routine. The experience made him much more competitive and led him to develop what he called ‘warrior mode’.
When have you turned a negative experience into a positive learning opportunity? What impact has that had on your business?
Data drives progress
Another aspect Broad talked about when discussing his development as a bowler is data. This is something that many professional sports people talk about. In Broad’s case the data told him that his performance against left-handed batsmen was poor in comparison to right handers. He worked on his technique against left-handers to great effect.
How good are you at using data in your business? Do you track more than top level numbers? What do you do with the data at your disposal? Is there more you could do? Is there more data you should be collecting? Do you need an expert to help you interpret the data and find the lessons in it? For example could a user experience expert help you to improve your website based on visitor tracking data?
I know this is a key weakness for me and it’s something I’m determined to work on in the coming months. I’m going to seek ways to monitor how people progress through their customer journey with us. This will involve looking at customer retention, visitor conversions and how people move through the earlier stages from awareness to trial. I’ll need to look at the organisation as a whole but also look at specific parts of our programme and our marketing. I need to find what works and what doesn’t. Hopefully that will lead me to the small tweaks in multiple areas … the marginal gains that combine to great success.
Where will you look for the marginal gains that could transform your business? You may find more ideas by looking in very different places from your own industry. Maybe there are people in your network from whom you could learn or bounce ideas around with.
