Posted by Jon
It’s rare that our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, says anything memorable. But I was quite fascinated by a comment he made in the Observer Sports Monthly magazine recently, in which he was interviewed by soccer player Rio Ferdinand.
He was reflecting on the outstanding success of the “Team GB” cycling squad at last summer’s Olympics – at which they captured fourteen medals, including eight golds:
It’s rare that our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, says anything memorable. But I was quite fascinated by a comment he made in the Observer Sports Monthly magazine recently, in which he was interviewed by soccer player Rio Ferdinand.
He was reflecting on the outstanding success of the “Team GB” cycling squad at last summer’s Olympics – at which they captured fourteen medals, including eight golds:
“The TeamGB cycling coach, Dave Brailsford, has done a great job. He says… that a big factor in success is what he calls the aggregation of minute differences. So you’ve got the handlebars better designed and he got the fitness improved and the uniform they wear … The aggregation of small improvements has put them at the top of the league.”
The same theory holds so very true for proposals – where one extra mark out of ten in the evaluator’s scoring, for every question in your proposal, can make the difference between winning and being an also-ran. It can happen systemically – improving your processes, getting access to better resources (tools, equipment, space), improving the “fitness” (or skills) of your contributors. And it can happen on each and every deal, as you cajole and help the team to push itself to the limit in the quest for success.
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