Small Changes, Big Results

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Sometimes an idea is easier to express visually. This is one of those.

Update!: Our friend Ron Ploof turned this into a movie for us. You can watch the video version here. (Thanks, Ron!)

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Tamsen McMahon helps people get from where they are to where they're going. She's also the Vice President of Digital Strategy at Allen & Gerritsen, and a Weight Watchers leader. She writes on individual change at PersonalCartography.com.

  • Pat Alexander

    Amber, great post. All so true. I work with people on making changes in their business. They want to try to accomplish it all at one time and immediately. Just can't be done. I am sharing this with my world.

  • Pat Alexander

    Amber, great post. All so true. I work with people on making changes in their business. They want to try to accomplish it all at one time and immediately. Just can't be done. I am sharing this with my world.

  • http://socialbutterflyguy.com/ DJ Waldow

    Love it, Tamsen! I made a (small) change a few weeks ago about how process my inbox (thanks to watching an #InboxZero video Chris Penn posted). It's made a huge difference in the amount of email piling up in my inbox. Efficiency has gone up; stress has gone done. Win. Win.

    Love the simplicity of the message above and the format you chose to present it in. Simple, yet powerful.

    (SxSw)

    DJ Waldow
    @djwaldow

  • http://philgerbyshak.com Phil Gerbyshak

    Tamsen – really strong and powerful PowerPoint. Fun way to show how little things can add up.

    Curious if the next one is a listing of 10 “little things” you can do to make a big difference?

  • elizabethsosnow

    Hi Tamsen:

    I'm looking forward to sharing this with others. How do you answer questions about the “middle part?” It takes patience for the small changes to lead to those aspirational results we all crave. For myself, I try to tell my clients/folks that I work with to “break it down.” Everything can be accomplished if you segment tasks. What's your take?

    Elizabeth

  • elizabethsosnow

    Hi Tamsen:

    I'm looking forward to sharing this with others. How do you answer questions about the “middle part?” It takes patience for the small changes to lead to those aspirational results we all crave. For myself, I try to tell my clients/folks that I work with to “break it down.” Everything can be accomplished if you segment tasks. What's your take?

    Elizabeth

  • http://brasstackthinking.com Tamsen McMahon (@tamadear)

    Thanks, DJ! I think it was Chip and Dan Heath in their book “Switch” where they described the challenge of always trying to solve big problems with big solutions. We forget that even the biggest challenges–inboxes included!–can be broken down into smaller, achievable steps. Congrats on that change!

  • http://brasstackthinking.com Tamsen McMahon (@tamadear)

    Oh, I like that idea, Phil! The challenging thing, of course, is that everyone's 10 little things are different: the 10 little things that will make big changes in my life are likely very different from 10 little things in yours. But that does make me wonder if I could come up with categories for where people can look to make changes. Thanks for getting my gears turning!

  • http://philgerbyshak.com Phil Gerbyshak

    Of course they're different, but that's the beauty of it. You share your 10, I share my 10, others share their 10, and as we see some intersection and some divergence, we see where we can help each other.

    I think some other keys are to think about your top line and what that really means, why it's important, and who we need to meet, not just what we need to do, to take those baby steps that add up so quickly.

  • http://brasstackthinking.com Tamsen McMahon (@tamadear)

    You're right, Elizabeth, “the middle part” is hard for most of us (me included!) I handle the challenge of it a number of different ways, depending on the person and the situation. For lots and lots of folks, time sneaks into the equation as part of how we judge our success–we judge whether or not we're there already, rather than whether or not we're on the path (the “time is a red herring” post I wrote a few weeks back speaks to that). One of the best ways to help neutralize that thinking is to look for evidence of our success so far, and celebrate that in whatever ways we find meaningful. It's often more helpful to measure the distance we've traveled from where we started than the distance yet to go. The first is real accomplishment, the second is still unknown.

  • clintstonebraker

    This came at the perfect time for me. I am at the point, with some professional changes, of deciding whether to forge ahead or stop altogether. Yesterday I made the decision to practice resiliency and today I see this. Very validating and inspiring. Thank you!

  • http://twitter.com/frankrebecca Rebecca Frank

    I love the visual, too, because it suggests that you need lateral movement (or thinking) to achieve vertical movement. If you try to move just UP, you will run into gravity and inertia. A sideways leap though, tends to have some vertical in it as well.

  • http://www.bethrobinson.me/ Beth Robinson

    That's so darn cute. hmm – Probably not quite the reaction you were going for. Let's try that again.

    That slideshow was a great bite-sized way to get the basic idea to really sink in more than just reading the concept does. I appreciated it.

  • Katgordon

    I call these “doable doses” and try to inch forward in one small way every day.

  • http://brasstackthinking.com Tamsen McMahon (@tamadear)

    You're welcome! And good luck with those changes. “Practice resiliency”–I like that!

  • http://brasstackthinking.com Tamsen McMahon (@tamadear)

    The sideways leaps are often what can get us started. After all, any movement will serve to break our inertia. In many ways, we are our own chaos theory: a change made in one area creates change in others.

  • http://brasstackthinking.com Tamsen McMahon (@tamadear)

    I like to experiment with different tones–so cute is a fine reaction! There will be some folks for whom the short, breezy, and (hopefully) amusing approach holds much more appeal…and therefore is much more likely to be effective, just as sometimes you have to show a concept rather than talk about it. Thanks for commenting, Beth!

  • http://www.marketinghandy.blogspot.com/ Mike Handy

    I posted a blog about this… great stuff really really good… laid the foundation for a point I wanted to make for a while. http://bit.ly/ddEn6c

  • Damian Thompson

    Love it! Tweeted it…

  • http://www.jeremymeyers.com/ Jeremy Meyers

    Such a simple concept, so hard for the “well, you've convinced me to try engaging with our customers. i want 10,000 followers in the next three weeks. we have a million customers, that shouldn't be too hard” folks to grok.

    Little steps are the only way to do anything, so we don't get caught in our heads PLANNING.

    In other words, scale it down until you can do it

  • http://www.jeremymeyers.com/ Jeremy Meyers

    Such a simple concept, so hard for the “well, you've convinced me to try engaging with our customers. i want 10,000 followers in the next three weeks. we have a million customers, that shouldn't be too hard” folks to grok.

    Little steps are the only way to do anything, so we don't get caught in our heads PLANNING.

    In other words, scale it down until you can do it

  • http://twitter.com/rickjmiv Rick Morgan

    Made me smile. Thanks

  • http://www.genlack.com Steve Lack

    Great concept. Made me start on a project tonight, even though I don't have much time to work on it!

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