Last year, several times, I mentioned Richard Rumelt’s book Good Strategy Bad Strategy as part of a series of postings on developing your strategic thinking.  I feel drawn to his book as the New Year begins.

In particular, I feel drawn to return to the concept of leverage.  Rumelt defines this in various ways, pointing to what he calls the “pivot point” that will magnify the effects of focused energy and resources.  His examples include President Ronald Reagan’s speech on 12th June, 1987, at the Brandenburg Gates in West Berlin.  Reagan – knowing of the gap between Mikhail Gorbachev’s claim that the Soviet Union was liberalising and the facts on the ground – took the opportunity to say:  “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalisation:  Come here to this gate!  Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!  Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”  His speech had the effect of highlighting to Western Europeans the imbalance that existed between a system that allowed free movement of people and one that had to restrain its citizens with barbed wire and concrete.  This in turn gave political leverage to Reagan.

In my own life, I am often delighted by small acts which have a disproportionate effect.  In 2007, for example,  I was contacted by a former colleague who had been asked to join a project team as a coach.  She wasn’t available to say yes but she thought of me and passed on my name.  I worked extensively with the team’s client that year and one of the people I coached has often referred potential clients to me since.  This simple act on the part of my former colleague continues to make a big difference in my life.  In similar fashion, I have written before on this blog about the ease of giving vouchers from my local supermarket – incentives to spend more money in exchange for extra reward points – to people who are already spending that amount of money at the till.  Sometimes this small incentive clearly makes a big difference to someone for whom money is tight.  Always it brightens the day both of the giver and the receiver.

It’s not that I want to focus in this posting on giving and receiving.  Rather, if you are wanting to take some of the hard work out of achieving results – to achieve more and with greater ease – looking for and acting on the points of leverage in your life can yield a bonus prize of easy results.  Perhaps you are spending a disproportionate amount of your time and energy on managing someone who you know, in your heart of hearts, is in the wrong job.  Tackling the issue head on takes time and energy and still, in the longer term, you know it will benefit you and the person concerned.  Perhaps in your own work you are holding on to a task you really hate when actually, delegating it to a member of your team could support their development and free your time to leverage your natural strengths.  Perhaps as a parent you are constantly trying to steer (control?) the activities of your teenage child when actually it’s time to loosen the rein a little, saying your piece and being ready to support whilst recognising you cannot protect them from all the dangers of the world.

I wonder if this idea of leverage has any resonance for you, right now.  Are there areas in which you find yourself expending time and effort with little by way of return?  Are there opportunities you’re currently missing to take some small action that will make a disproportionate impact in your life or the lives of others?  As you enter the New Year I invite you to take five minutes to identify five fruitless activities you need to let go of and five easy wins you have yet to harvest.  Please share them here.

Happy New Year.