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Small is Beautiful

8 January, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

This morning I had a conversation with a gentleman who (amongst other things) works with problem children and families. He is a strong proponent of “solutions based coaching“, which is getting people to work out for themselves where they want to be, and then working through the practical steps they could take to get there. The key ethos being that you focus on what you can do rather than the problem and what gets in your way.

One of the things he said that I found particularly interesting was “what is the smallest thing you could do to take you in the right direction”.

His point is that success is achieved one step at a time. If you plan to go for a run today you will succeed and feel good about it. If you plan to go to the gym 5 days a week for the next year you probably won’t.

It strikes me that in business we are obsessed about the next new IT platform or outsourcing deal and don’t do the small stuff.

Perhaps if you move the filing cabinet so people can get to it today, you will have redesigned a work-flow and updated a signature list by the end of the week.

Imagine what you could have achieved by the end of the year.

How would that feel?

Small is beautiful

Image by Tobytter

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: continuous improvement, learning, one step at a time

About the Author

James Lawther
James Lawther

James Lawther is a middle-aged, middle manager.

To reach this highly elevated position he has worked in numerous industries, from supermarket retailing to tax collecting.  He has had several operational roles, including running the night shift in a frozen pea packing factory and carrying out operational research for a credit card company.

As you can see from his C.V. he has either a wealth of experience or is incapable of holding down a job.  If the latter is true this post isn’t worth a minute of your attention.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to read it and decide for yourself.

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