Marginal gains can underpin your Team Performance

As I was thinking what next for Team Performance I decided to explore one of our favourite Wild Thinking philosophy’s that have inspired us in recent years. It seems fitting to explore a cycling success story with the imminent start of this years’ Tour de France in Yorkshire.

Dave Brailsford, British Cycling’s Performance Director at the time, told us lots about the “aggregation of marginal gains” that underpinned everything the British Cycling team did in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics and beyond. If you missed it, everyone from the mechanics to the Director of British Cycling worked at changing attitudes.

“The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together,” Dave explained to the watching and listening to his every word world. “There’s fitness and conditioning, of course, but there are other things that might seem on the periphery, like sleeping in the right position, having the same pillow when you are away and training in different places”.

So the secret of British cycling’s success is taking your own pillow with you when you travel to different places around the world?

“It’s hard to explain what makes the team so special,” the six-time Olympic gold medallist Chris Hoy said. “It’s all of it, the science, the training, the coaches, but most of all we point the mirror at ourselves and ask ‘how can we get better?'”

There is no arrogance at British Cycling; they know they can do better and at Wild Thinking we believe them! Think how marginal gains can add up to BIG improvements for your Team Performance.

Think BIG: Work Smarter

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