Marginal Gains – Huge Results

Tags

autonomy, habits, learner independence, psychology

[The importance of improving the way you do things]

The year 2003 marked what has to be the most spectacular turnaround in sports history. For more than a century, the British cycling team had performed so badly, that they had not won a gold medal since 1908 or the Tour de France in 110 years! Then Dave Brailsford took over.

Brailsford introduced an interesting new strategy, which he called ‘the aggregation of  marginal gains’. This was the idea: there are a number of factors which contribute to a cyclist achieving a top performance; if we break down all of these and then make an 1% improvement in each one, the overall result should be very significant.

Following this logic, the team got together and analysed everything: the bike and its parts; the athletes’ clothes; the training, the athletes’ diet, their health, etc. They looked at every single detail and then made dozens and dozens of changes. For instance, they improved the saddles to make them more comfortable; they switched to lighter fabrics for the athletes’ clothes; they used biofeedback sensors to see how each athlete responded to the training so as to customize their work-outs; they even tried out different pillows and mattresses to ensure that the athletes got the best sleep possible.

Did all this work pay off? You bet it did. In the Beijing Olympics of 2008, the team won 60% of all the gold medals in cycling. In the London Olympics of 2012, they set seven world records. And in a stunning winning spree, they won the Tour de France five out of six times in the period between 2012 and 2017. Amazing! (‘Atomic Habits’ – pp. 14-15 [Watch the short clip below] ).

So what if we as EL teachers were to take a leaf out of Brailsford’s book? What if we were to look at how our students try to learn English and improved every single thing by 1% (or more)? Here are some ideas:

• If our students record single words, why not show them how to record collocations?
• If they enjoy watching TV series, why not tell them to watch them with English subtitles on?
• If they revise by re-reading their notes, why not teach them how to quiz themselves instead?

Apart from the language benefits, getting students to change the way they practice should produce a far more important change – a change in identity: ‘I am an active language learner’. That would be a huge win.

The Moral: FiShow your students how to make ‘marginal’ changes.

Going the Extra Mile

Tags

customer service, liking, Motivation, psychology

[How little things can result in huge reputational gains]

It is the middle of July, the Greek summer sun is bearing down on you mercilessly, so you head for your favourite bar on the beach. The barista greets you with a smile. ‘You know that weird cocktail you asked me for yesterday – the one I hadn’t heard of?’ he asks. ‘Well, I looked it up, found the ingredients and prepared it for you. Here it is. On the house’. Wow!

The world of Customer Service is full of little incidents like this one (taken from ‘The Power of Moments’ – p. 55). Imagine for instance being a CEO and flying off somewhere to receive an award in front of 2,000 people. Then at the very last moment you discover you forgot to pack a tie. The hotel manager who happens to be present simply removes his own and gives it to you. Fantastic! (‘The 12 Elements of Great Managing’ – p. 13)

And what about that employee at Nordstrom? A customer walked in saying she had bought something which she needed to give someone as a present, only they had forgotten to gift-wrap it for her. The employee immediately offered to do this for her. Nothing special here – except that the item had not been bought at Nordstrom but at Macy’s! (‘Made to Stick’ – p. 73).

Is there a lesson for us here? Indeed there is. Our students watch us all the time – and they talk about us. Whenever we do something unexpected, something special, whenever we go the extra mile, this registers immediately and can have a huge impact on our reputation.

Imagine for instance a parent calling the school saying that something has come up at home and she cannot pick up her child for at least an hour. Now imagine the teacher driving the child there on her own initiative.

Or imagine a teacher hearing about one of her students winning, say, a sports tournament and throwing a special party at the language school as a special treat.

What message would these actions send? That the teacher cares for her students not only as learners but as human beings as well. Think about how the students and the parents would see her – and what they would say about her. Think about how much more students would learn from a teacher they like. Then think about how these little things would change the teacher herself.

The Moral: YSeek out opportunities to shine.