Coach Improves Everything by 1 %
by Howard
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Wednesday, 08 April 2015
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Published in Agility, Articles, Community, Competency, Competitiveness, Continuous Improvement, Excellence, Fulfillment, Leadership, Motivation, Opportunism, Purpose, Rethink Strategy, Self-Actualization, Vision
by James Clear:
James Clear is an entrepreneur, weightlifter and travel photographer in 20+ countries. His website, JamesClear.com is the home of my life’s work and is read by over 200,000 unique visitors each month.
As a keynote speaker and panelist he have delivered speeches throughout the US and Europe, to audiences as large as 2,000 people. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Biomechanics from Denison University where he was also an ESPN Academic All-American baseball pitcher. James earned his MBA from Ohio State University
In 2010, Dave Brailsford faced a tough job.
No British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France, but as the new General Manager and Performance Director for Team Sky , Brailsford was asked to change that. His approach was simple.
He believed in a concept that he referred to as the “aggregation of marginal gains.” He explained it as “the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do.” His belief was that if you improved every area related to cycling by just 1 percent, then those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement.
They started by optimizing the things you might expect: the nutrition of riders, their weekly training program, the ergonomics of the bike seat, and the weight of the tires.
But Brailsford and his team didn’t stop there. They searched for 1 percent improvements in tiny areas that were overlooked by almost everyone else. They believed that if they could successfully execute this strategy, then Team Sky would be in a position to win the Tour de France in 5 years time. He was wrong. They won it in 3 years!
In 2012, Team Sky rider Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. That same year, Brailsford coached the British cycling team at the 2012 Olympic Games and dominated the competition by winning 70 percent of the gold medals available.
In 2013, Team Sky repeated their feat by winning the Tour de France again, this time with rider Chris Froome. Many have referred to the British cycling feats in the Olympics and the Tour de France over the past 10 years as the most successful run in modern cycling history. And now for the important question: what can we learn from Brailsford’s approach?
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