I remember when as a 10-year-old I learned to play the guitar, to read music and selectively pick strings to demi semi quavers and crotchets – you might gather therefore it wasn’t merely fanciful strumming into the wind! I also learned soon that I couldn’t hoodwink the process of daily practice because a stern tutor cometh weekly, peeling finger-tips and calluses notwithstanding. To cultivate daily practice in guitaring just as in a habit, it doesn’t do to do all of your practice in one day, even if excessively so. Rather, one must labour towards piecemeal improvement each day for incrementally best results. And so, early on in life, I applied the 1 Percent Rule as the only way to keep up with an exacting tutor, though I did not know it by that term then nor its reinforcement as a habit aided by accountability.
James Clear, author of the now iconic book, Atomic Habits, says thus: “Small differences in performance can lead to very unequal distributions when repeated over time. This is yet another reason why habits are so important. The people and organizations that can do the right things, more consistently are more likely to maintain a slight edge and accumulate disproportionate rewards over time…
“We can call this The 1 Percent Rule. The 1 Percent Rule states that over time the majority of the rewards in a given field will accumulate to the people, teams, and organizations that maintain a 1 percent advantage over the alternatives. You don’t need to be twice as good to get twice the results. You just need to be slightly better.” James Clear cites the Pareto principle for overwhelming evidence in this regard. Quoth he: “The margin between good and great is narrower than it seems. What begins as a slight edge over the competition compounds with each additional contest… Over time, those that are slightly better end up with the majority of the rewards. Those that are slightly worse end up with next to nothing.” The Mathew effect as it is sometimes referred to, references to a passage from Mathew’s gospel in the Bible, “For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
Civil rights campaigner Rita Mae Brown wrote about insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Brad Sugars, epic founder of ActionCOACH, runs with a term he has coined called ‘leverage’ – divide to multiply – to look at the current tasks and activities you are currently doing in a new way. He says, “In essence, leverage is about optimizing what you have to achieve greater outcomes. It’s the secret gear in your business machine that can accelerate growth and success.” A veritable multiplier effect!
In group coaching, I have often provoked with reference to that other graceful art form, dancing. I have encouraged learners to divide the various aspects of their learning and look at it with small improvements, much as a dancer would to core aspects of rhythm, posture, hand and leg movements etc. In considering a formulaic action-reflection-learning loop, with each loop feeding into the next incremental change, I have offered they might reap the benefits of the 1 Percent Rule. And inherit the earth with it, as Pareto vastly observed with his 80/20 principle.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Navin Tauro is a global leadership consultant, and coaches and trains across borders in the U.S., Europe, APAC and M.E. He also publishes on compelling leadership themes. His is a soul cry for enduring excellence and relationship in an otherwise evaporating world of transient transactions. Navin has hosted large social & VVIP awards events, with HH Dalai Lama, heads of State, admirals, ministers, ambassadors and other eminent dignitaries present; and is a consummate communicator.