Engagement Technique: Marginal Gains

Sometimes winning comes down to the smallest details.

 

Sir Dave Brailsford made the concept of marginal gains famous when he transformed British Cycling and Team Sky. He took over a Great Britain team that hadn’t performed on the big stage. His approach? Find hundreds of tiny improvements to improve, rather than try big overhauls.

This even went down to the team taking their own pillows on tour to get a better night sleep. That on its own doesn’t get you success, but multiply all of those gains together,  and those 1% wins add up to world-beating performance. Team GB under Brailsford became a multi olympic gold winning, and multi ‘Tour De France’ winning team over many years with this approach.

Former England Rugby Manager Sir Clive Woodward spoke about something similar with England Rugby. He called this the “critical non-essentials.” Things that might look small on their own but collectively made the difference. England won their first Rugby World Cup by a drop goal – which was the last kick of the game. The finest of margins possible.

This approach has transferred beyond sport. Dragon’s Den star and entrepreneur Steven Bartlett talks about the 1% principle on Diary of a CEO, one of their values is ‘sweat the small stuff’ – taking the experience of their podcast, or whatever they do, and maximising every little detail to great effect.

 

How to apply this at work

You don’t need to be an elite athlete or CEO to use marginal gains. Here’s an exercise I’ve run in companies:

• Discuss the Marginal Gains approach to a team/department/the company, depending on size.

• Challenge people to think small, not big. Rather than big hairy goals, on this occasion think about what small improvements could they make?

• Ideally, ask for 100. Show that you can be 100% better, and do this in say 4 weeks.
  We were a team of 80, some people submitted two, some one, but the buzz was immediate in the office

• Celebrate the small improvements and the impact they have – or track progress with a “thermometer” chart.

The beauty is in the simplicity: quick turnaround, visible progress, and the motivation that comes from seeing lots of little wins stack up into something big.

 

 

Why it works

• People feel heard because their ideas are put into action.

• Teams see momentum build, one small win at a time.

• Engagement rises because everyone contributes to the bigger picture.

 

What 1% improvement can you make to what you do? Where are marginal gains going to make huge impacts? What seemingly minor detail can set you apart?!

 

 

This post is part of our Engagement Techniques series of practical, low-cost ideas to bring more connection and meaning into work. Find the rest here.

👉 Want to explore techniques like this in more depth? I run interactive employee engagement workshops where we bring these ideas to life.