If you want to raise the standards of any group, improving the top of the heap isn’t nearly as effective as focusing your effort on the base instead.
If you care about health and a culture of performance, it’s tempting to push Olympic athletes to go just a tenth of a second faster. It’s far more effective, though, if you can get 3,000,000 kids to each spend five more minutes a day walking instead of sitting. Organizations pamper and challenge the few in the executive suite, imagining that one more good decision in the biz dev group could pay off. The thing is, if every one of the 10,000 customer-facing employees was more engaged and kind, it would have a far bigger impact on the company and those it serves.
I think the reason we focus on the few is that it feels more dramatic, seems more controllable and is ultimately easier. But the effective, just and important thing to do is to help the back of the line catch up.
(author Seth Godin)
Focus on the few
