Marginal gains is a voguish mantra for improving performance. Made famous by GB Cycling & Team Sky under David Brailsford it is a philosophy that has its roots in the Japanese manufacturing concept of Kaizen. A hundred things all done 1% better adds up to a lot of change and a lot of additional performance.
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Warner & Swasey were a well-known US tool hire company. In the 1950’s they ran an advert with the tag line, ‘The man who needs a new machine tool, and hasn’t bought it, is already paying for it.’ Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s business partner at Bekshire Hathaway recalled the line and underlined the truth of it.
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Most teams are weak because they have a deficit of trust and inadequate relationships between team members. Almost every problem or performance issue will relate at root to the deficiency of these two qualities.
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In the Armed Forces of the United States there is an award known as the Presidential Unit Citation. It is a collective award given to a unit in the US military of Allied Forces that shows extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy.
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Authority [mass noun] the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience: he had absolute authority over his subordinates. An ‘authority gradient’ is a way of imagining how far and how steep the gap is between leaders and team members.
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I had the privilege once of meeting Prince Philip and the Queen and talking with them briefly about life in the military and work we had been conducting. It was just one of their engagements, no doubt lost in the memory to them but precious to me like so many others whose lives they have touched.
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Last night (17th Oct) Channel 4 began the second season of their reality series ‘Who Dares Wins’. The format follows 25 volunteers who are sent to the Ecuadorian rainforest to participate in an approximation of the jungle phase of UK Special Forces Selection
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This is the second blog in the Series 'Gritty Girls. Lessons in Life and Leadership' by Fi Hollas (Former Army Officer and now Associate and BDM here at Metris Leadership). "Having recently celebrated a significant birthday and reflected on the last 4 decades, I wondered what advice I would give to my younger self."
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I watched as the latest intake of future Officers that I had had the privilege of Commanding marched past. It was my last day in uniform after 16 years service as an Army officer and this seemed a very fitting way to spend it. I was so proud of them all and excited at the future that lay ahead of them.
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Why is organizational culture considered such a barometer for success? Why did Peter Thiel after investing $150m in Airbnb when asked by their co-founder Brian Chesky for the single most important piece of advice he could offer reply, ‘Don’t f**k up the culture’.
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