The Power of Incremental Change

There’s an old zen koan (story) of a wealthy merchant who wanted to build a new house that illustrates the importance of incremental change. They wanted a three-story dwelling so they could look out over their land and marvel at the beautiful landscape for many miles around, and more importantly, because the higher one lived the higher one’s status.

And so they contracted highly skilled builders to build his beautiful home. Being a person, they left them to do what they were being paid to do. Upon their return several weeks later, they decided to see how the builders had progressed.

To their horror, they found that the builders had only started on the ground floor. ‘Why have you not begun work on the top floor?’ he cried. There could be no status living on the ground floor and much loss of face.

The builders, of course, explained to the wealthy merchant that they must start at the bottom before they could begin to move up to the next floor and, ultimately the top floor. But the merchant wasn’t happy because they didn’t want the other floors. They only wanted and desired the third floor. The others were not needed.

Change is incremental and happens one step at a time

Many business leaders and entrepreneurs are like that. They want change to happen all at once. They set out with massive visions and write enormous BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) and get miffed if it doesn’t happen fast enough. They want to jump straight to the endgame. Many managers are like that as well. They want the yearly budget done by September or need the return on their innovation investment before the product is ready. The effect of incremental change is often overlooked

Yes, having a vision is vital because otherwise, how do you know where you are going? Having goals are vital because they make your vision a reality. Without either, business doesn’t grow.

But…

Sustainable business growth and change take time.

Meeting budgets takes time. Developing your people takes time. In order to get to the endgame, whatever your vision and what your goals are, you need to work meticulously on getting every stage right and complete before you move on to the next. Remember that business is a ‘Game of inches’ and change is incremental.

Like the top floor, your business will only be solid, secure and lasting if you take the time to build everything correctly on the way up. Desired change can only happen in increments.

Related articles include ‘How the McVikers Cashed in on Change‘ and ‘Change Management requires ownership, not buy-in’. Also ‘The Tasmanian who changed an industry’

Find out how Nigel can help your conference delegates make change happen or about his executive coaching and other keynotes.

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