Drastic Change Isn’t Sustainable
If you don’t live in Denver, you may not have heard about the historic temperature swing we recently experienced. On Monday (Labor Day) we had a high of 90 degrees. Other than some residual smoke in the air from the nearby wildfires, it was a beautiful day to be outside and enjoy the holiday. On Tuesday, the high was 34 degrees with some snow accumulation. A day to dig out warm clothes and stay inside. This drastic change in the weather is certainly newsworthy, but if it happened all the time, it would not be sustainable. The gradual changing of the seasons allows for plants, trees, grasses and animals to prepare and adapt to a new climate over time. And efficiencies for us would be lost having to go back and forth between huge temperature changes in a variety of ways such as, upkeep on heating and cooling units, road maintenance, outdoor activities and even something as silly as closet organization.
We’ve found that the same is true in business. While drastic change grabs headlines and sparks excitement - our motto of “MIBE - Make It Better Everyday”, is much more effective when it comes to making significant progress within an organization. Yes, once in a while you can make a big change and have success with it, but constantly doing so will cause too much disruption for those changes to actually make a positive difference. Focusing on small improvements every day is boring and often not even noticeable, but over time those minor shifts add up to major changes. And because they happen over time, it allows employees to adapt and acclimate along the way. It’s also much easier to shift paths when you’re making small improvements as opposed to huge leaps. A huge leap in the wrong direction, requires a lot of back tracking to return to the proper course. Small steps allow for incremental testing of concepts and continuous progress.
The same is also true for our personal lives. How often does a new workout plan or crash diet go awry because we try to go from zero to sixty too quickly? Instead of going from couch potato to a rigorous daily workout routine, we are better off starting with a small step, say 10 minutes of exercise each day. You might be saying what is 10 minutes of exercise going to do for me? Therein lies the point - 10 minutes on it’s own probably won’t do anything for you, but I guarantee you’ll be in a better place physically if you keep that up for two weeks. You’ll also be more able and ready to increase that time to 15 or 20 minutes per day and keep your habit going.
We are faced with hundreds of decisions every day. Thinking about the big things we want to accomplish can be overwhelming and sometimes feel out of reach. Don’t wait until tomorrow, start today by doing something small that moves you in a positive direction. Do one thing better today than you did yesterday. And If you want to encourage this behavior among your team, make sure to celebrate the small wins. Be on the lookout for those seemingly insignificant improvements and share them with the whole team.
As for us in Denver - don’t worry it’s supposed to be back in the 80s this weekend and stay that way for a while.
*Each week I share a leadership message with our team and we are honored to share it with you via MIBE Tribe. MIBE (the acronym for Make It Better Everyday) Tribe delivers education on heart leadership and intentional culture building for the hospitality industry.