Minors That Are Majors - 'Short'

Don’t stop on Short Street.

It’s a road I know well. It’s almost the exact half way point on my out-and-back run from my house. I say almost because it’s fifty meters short. It’s ironically named.

Every run I have a decision to make. Do I turnaround at Short Street or wait to cross the road and complete the distance? It’s just fifty metres, one percent of my five kilometre run.

Stopping on short won’t affect me now, but it’s a minor, that compounds to become a major.

Leaders can stop on Short Street too.

• It’s letting that behaviour go on longer than it should.
• It’s giving up saying something because you’re sick of saying it just before people really get it.
• It’s going with that good idea instead of pushing that bit extra for a great one.

In 2009 Alfred Lin, former COO/CFO at Zappos.com encouraged employees with this simple idea.

“Think about what it means to improve just 1% per day and build upon that every single day. Doing so has a dramatic effect and will make us 37x better, not 365% (3.65x) better at the end of the year. Wake up every day and ask yourself not only what is the 1% improvement I can change to make Zappos better, but also what is the 1% improvement I can change to make myself better personally and professionally – because we, Zappos, can’t grow unless we as individual people grow too.“

A question to reflect on:

“Where am I stopping short and what could 1% more achieve in the long run?”