Incremental Impact

“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”

–       Oliver Wendell Holmes

We live in a media intensive world that relishes in the exponential.  “Big” is no longer enough to garner much attention for lots of folks who are looking for “huge,” and, besides, the definition of “big” is subjective and shifting all the time.

One risk in considering “impact” is that, in this media intensive world, we’re led by the sound bite to think of “big” impact.  “The sound of the impact could be heard for several blocks…”  In real life — the one lived, for example in our world, “big impact” might actually result from a series of small impact points combining toward something bigger.

Think about it.  How many single incidents in your life have really been game changers?  And, on reflection, what percentage of those were actually the sum of smaller parts, rather than one, gigantic serendipitous event?  My guess is the answer to the first question was a pretty small number and the answer to the second was a pretty high percentage.

What we do, regardless of what it is, is based in incremental improvement.  In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell references the significance of a practice threshold of 10,000 hours.  Bill Gates and others who have been credited with huge, exponential impacts on commerce and the world in general, actually arrived at those huge, exponential events after at least 10,000 hours of plodding, grinding and marching.

Parents don’t raise great kids with flashes of brilliance.  They raise great kids with incremental, consistent, disciplined steps to parenting.  Managers don’t get results by reaching in to a top hat with a white silk glove and pulling out a rabbit.  They get results with incremental, consistent steps to managing.

“Breakthrough” actors and directors often talk about being a “20-year overnight success.”  There are countless examples in virtually any other industry you want to point to.

What we do today will either take us forward or not.  That “big deal” gets moved one step closer by the five or six little things we’ll do today.  That delivery problem we’re facing will get solved one step at a time.  The seminal moment we’re all looking for will be created by a large number of seemingly insignificant steps.  Incremental.  Forward.  Progress.  Leadership.  Difference making.