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One Half of One Percent

23 March, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

If I said the sum total of all your efforts today would make you 1/2 a percent better than you were first thing this morning, would you have bothered getting out of bed?  Or would you have just rolled over and gone back to sleep?

We like to be bold, think strategically and lay big bets.  Most of us wouldn’t consider a 1/2 percent improvement worth the effort.

If however you got 0.5% better today and 0.5% better tomorrow then within 5 months you would be performing at twice the level you do today.  In a year you would be 6.17 times more effective then you are today (yes I was sad enough to work it out).

The thing about a half percent improvement is it is achievable.

Little and often, that is the way.

Image by Oliver

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: continuous improvement, reinforcing behaviour

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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