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Over The Counter: Marginal Gains

Sir Dave Brailsford is a name that has transcended sport. He is also a man back firmly in the news with his link to Manchester United, my team, as one of a three-person committee – alongside Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Joel Glazer – to manage the football side as part of Ineos acquiring a 25% stake in the club.

Man U has not had their troubles to seek in these last few years. In the same way as Clintons, they have the name recognition and at one time the largest following, but in recent times they have been a million miles away from being successful.

As Brailsford prepares to put his marginal gains strategy into play with Man U, it got me thinking about how this works for our business.

Sir Dave Brailsford’s history is an interesting one. He left home in his early 20s, heading to France to try and join a professional cycling team. Sleeping rough, facing rejection and not really knowing the best way to get the best from himself he eventually got a chance, but did not quite make it.

What followed was him being inspired by this and he enrolled to study what was then the early stages of sports psychology. He then completed an MBA and developed further. In effect, he has been there from the infancy of sport psychology being able to view the

Marginal Gains

mind as being as important to train as the rest of the body. His ethos around finding that extra little something that makes a difference has been honed over 20 years of working with different sports teams. Although most famous for working with cyclists and Olympians he has gone on to use these skills in many settings, including business.

His ethos of marginal gains got me thinking about how we could possibly implement some of this in our day-to-day operations.

Brailsford’s theory is rooted in that fact that he believes trying to make huge changes in your life or business performance is very difficult. He equates it to those who each January try to alter their diet, their sleep, their exercise and the way they perform. You just swamp yourself and there are very few people who can actually carry this through for any length of time.

He believes that you/your team need to set small realistic goals that can be evaluated

and achieved. He believes that the feeling of fulfilment and success in turns breeds further commitment to improve and indeed further success.

My plan was to start 2024 with more exercise, more sleep and more time, but as always things don’t quite work out that like!

The simplest gain that Brailsford often speaks about is smiling. Smiling and asking your colleagues to do the same creates a positive atmosphere. Being genuine and open allows for a culture where customers and colleagues feel safe and welcomed.

There are things that require ‘buy in’ from your team and while we are not all striving for a gold medal, we can surely add little things to suit, such as the team all having a coffee together before starting work.

Some of the best marginal gains implemented by Brailsford with the cycling team included hiring a surgeon to show each team member how to wash their hands properly to avoid colds. They assessed each rider’s sleep and matched them with the correct mattress and pillows. They even painted everything inside their trucks white to spot any tiny bits of debris that may cause a bike to be slower.

As each of these gains was implemented

Inset: As Brailsford believes, we would all benefit from slowing our busy minds, like this Buddhist monk.

Above: A graph which author James Clear shared on his blog based on Dave Brailsford’s marginal gain beliefs.

Left: Sir Dave Brailsford is bringing his approach and beliefs to Manchester United.

the results kept improving. With each improved set of results the buy in from each individual improves.

We have almost convinced ourselves that massive success requires massive change. In truth just 1% better each day will end up as 37 times better over the course of one year. It is not noticeable on day one, but things will become obvious with these gains over a long period of time. Change shouldn’t be a massive challenge. Change shouldn’t be a chore. Small change just needs to stick.

The areas that I want to look at most in this coming year are stockholding/purchasing; staff hours and better communication.

Stockholding is my biggest weakness and my biggest issue. It literally eats at my cashflow and causes so much pressure and stress. What we have implemented is that no single person in any store can order stock without checking first that another key member of the team agrees. This includes myself and my mum.

Current stock must be checked and counted before new stock is ordered. Placement of orders must be checked by myself or my office manager to ensure that we do not get bunching (ie a lot of orders landing close together meaning they will be due to be paid at the same time).

Large events must have stock staggered over a period of time/and or extra credit needs to be agreed. For example, Christmas may start coming in August and still be arriving in October. We also split larger orders over two drops to make it more manageable.

On staff hours, in early January I spoke to all key staff - mostly those responsible for rotas and said I was looking to make sure that wages and costs were kept tight in January and February.

I was not really any more detailed than that, which was a mistake as it panicked everyone into thinking I was going to be slashing hours.

What I was looking to do was shave an hour or two from each team member in these months which will not have a major effect on any one

person or their income, but could cumulatively save around 60 hours of costs per week across the business. So how do we do that? We have been looking at start and finish times to see if those first 30 and last 30 mins are actually cost effective. We have also been looking at the length of working shift and break patterns. Next, we looked at days off to see if fixed or floating days off improved mood. We have also looked at staggered start times so that not everyone has an early start and can be used to fit in round appointments etc.

There are obviously cost savings to be made, but it also has had a positive effect on staff in terms of giving them more flexibility. For example, one team member who is kitchen-based has changed her hours to allow her to finish just before she picks her child up from school.

The point is, you can save, make changes and still have a positive impact if it is communicated correctly with open and honest discussion.

Communication is an easy one to improve with simple changes. Regular staff meetings and not swamping team members with information and most importantly listening, bring gains.

The latter is still my biggest challenge as I am like an excitable child and want to get too much information out there without listening properly and evaluating what is coming back.

Another Brailsford mantra that I really like and is very applicable to many small business owners is his love for bamboo. He lifts this thinking from the Zen Buddhists who believe that humans should be more like bamboo.

Bamboo is a miracle plant in

OVER THE COUNTER

lots of ways. It releases lots more oxygen than other plants and yet absorbs far more carbon dioxide. Using this as an analogy, we need to be willing to give more while taking on board problems.

Bamboo is super resilient and tough, growing steadily in any conditions. From cold to heat it is able to spring back to its former self, stronger than ever each time. Bamboo’s strength is in its roots which provide the ability for it to move, adapt and change, yet never break. It sways with the challenges and continues to grow taller.

The Kanji (Chinese character) for smile or laughter actually has the symbol for bamboo at the top of it and that is because they say the noise of the bamboo moving in the wind is like the laughter of the forest, reminding us that growth needs to be fun as well.

Bamboo has many other fascinating traits, such as its hollowness, which should remind ourselves to be open to new things, but not to be too full of our own importance.

Finally, we need to slow our busy minds to really see what is happening around us in life and business. An old Taoist saying is that we cannot see our reflection in running water, only in a still pool.

Fail to prepare - prepare to fail. Brailsford’s set of rules are similar to that of any sensei.

They are not trying to make you perfect, no one can be. They do not want you to be spectacular every day. They just want to remind you of the good habits you already have and remind you that the key to success is to keep trying to improve a little and be resilient.

Small steps every day… decision away… To contact David email: jppozzi@btconnect.com

Left: The benefits of adopting the marginal gains way brought success for the British cycling team, including Sir Bradley Wiggin. Below: David Robertson (left) beats himself up on not making the changes he wants to on his business and personal life, he, like others should remind himself of the progress he has made! A happy scene from The Retas 2017 with (right-left) Postmark’s Leona and Mark Janson-Smith with Wendy Jones-Blackett.

Top: The positive power of smiling on other should not be underestimated. Above: Brailsford feels we should be more like bamboo, able to grow steadily, adapting to challenges.

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