The aggregation of marginal gains.

1% Better Everyday

A concept made famous by British cycling coach Dave Brailsford, who lead the British cycling team to 10 gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,  He decided that he and his team would focus on improving every aspect of performance and these aggregations would add up.  Prior to this, the team had not managed any significant wins.

Brailsford believed that victory at the Olympics would be achieved by focusing on a 1% margin for improvement in everything they did. He decided that he and his team would focus on improving every aspect of performance and these aggregations would add up. Examples of seemingly insignificant things they focused on, included:

• Implementing precise food preparation procedures
• Bringing their our own mattresses and pillows so athletes could sleep in the same posture every night
• Painting the floor of their bike trailer white so they could more easily identify dust and remove it

​To quote the man himself:
"We searched for small improvements everywhere and found countless opportunities. Taken together, we felt they gave us a competitive advantage."  (Source)
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He believed that if you improved every area related to cycling by just 1%, those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement.