How great would it be if everyone in your company improved their output by 10 percent?

I recently watched the ten-part ESPN series on Michael Jordan and the great Bulls teams of the 1990s.  As a Knick fan from days of Willis Reed to the Patrick Ewing era, it was a little painful.  But I did catch some clips of former Knick coach Pat Riley on the sidelines.  And that got me thinking about a piece of advice that I once heard from him.

In one of his books on leadership, the coach wrote about how to set goals and motivate his team.  He recounted the story of one of his forwards who was already averaging ten rebounds per game – a pretty good clip in the NBA.  How could the coach get more from him?

The answer was surprisingly simple.  Don’t ask for something vague – “get more rebounds.”  And don’t ask him to grab 15 boards a night.  Just ask for “one more rebound.”  How could a player able to collect ten be unable to snag just one more per game?

Of course the one more rebound per game was a 10% improvement.  And if everyone on the team makes a similar improvement, at the end of the season, you’ll all be sipping champagne and wearing rings.

This illustrates Rule Four of the Seven Rules of an Effective Strategic Planning Process – Be Realistic.  Set goals that are possible and attainable.  Ask your team to do something that is within their ability to achieve.  Get them to agree that the goal is reasonable.  Once they buy-in, they’ll be motivated to deliver.  And when everyone achieves just a little bit more, the improvements will be exponential.

Then you’ll be raising the championship banner.