Many leaders are under intense pressure right now.
KPMG’s 2025 UK CEO Outlook shows 83% of chief executives remain confident about growth, yet rank AI adoption, talent upskilling, and cyber risk as their top operational challenges while navigating ongoing uncertainty KPMG 2025 CEO Outlook.
PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2025 reveals only 53% of workers feel optimistic about the future of their roles amid AI disruption, with daily AI usage still low and trust gaps widening PwC Hopes and Fears 2025.
Deloitte’s latest Emerging Growth research highlights persistent shortages in AI, data science, and engineering talent, forcing companies into global competition for skills while many freeze hiring and capex Deloitte Emerging Growth Insights 2025.
One in six UK employers expect AI-driven job cuts in the next twelve months CIPD survey, Nov 2025.
The result? Exhaustion, stalled initiatives, and quiet quitting.
Most “big bang” transformations still fail at 70–80%.
The leaders who are pulling ahead aren’t launching another overhaul.
They’re ruthlessly hunting for 1% improvements every single week.
Sir Dave Brailsford turned this into a system.
Here it is, ready for you to use right away.
The Marginal Gains Execution System
Three steps that compound into unbeatable advantage.
Step 1 − Map Every Link in the Chain
List everything that influences performance.
Not just strategy and KPIs.
Everything.
Morning routine. Meeting cadence. Feedback speed. Decision rights. Sleep quality. How you celebrate small wins. How you say no.
Brailsford’s team went as far as painting the inside of the team truck white to spot dust that could degrade bike components.
Do this exercise with your leadership team this week. You’ll surface 40–60 items in under 30 minutes.
Step 2 − Force the 1% Question
For each item ask only: “How do we make this 1% better?”
Real examples that compound fast:
Default meetings to 25 or 50 minutes → instantly recovers 10–20% of calendar time.
Require every update to start with “Decision needed / FYI / Action required” in the subject line → slashes email processing time.
End every recurring meeting five minutes early → compounds to days of reclaimed deep-work time per year.
Mandate one specific, timely piece of praise per leader per day → lifts engagement scores dramatically.
These feel trivial. That’s why they scale and heroic change doesn’t.
Step 3 − Make Every Gain Visible and Permanent
Shared board (physical or digital). Red-line or sticker each improvement. When the team sees progress daily, momentum becomes inevitable.
A FTSE 250 manufacturing client started with the “one praise per day” rule. Twelve months later: engagement +31 points, voluntary turnover –42%, output +19%. No new heads, no new tech. Pure compounding.
McKinsey’s latest research on next-generation operational excellence confirms sustained small improvements deliver 3–5× higher productivity gains than traditional transformation programmes McKinsey – Next-generation operational excellence.
The era of hoping the next re-org or AI tool saves you is over.
The era of stacking marginal gains has begun.
What is the single smallest thing you will improve by 1% this week?
Best short videos
Sir Dave Brailsford explains marginal gains and the CORE principle (7 mins): YouTube
How British Cycling used marginal gains to dominate (5 mins): YouTube
Ready to build sustainable high performance for 2026? The Flowstate Cyclist programme starts in January. Learn more here.
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