Theory of Incremental Advantage

Motivation is Fed by Constant Reminders

You are energized by what you constantly see. Many successful people place pictures of their families on their desks. Looking at one's spouse or children energizes them to keep pushing ahead. These pictures remind them of who they are really working for.

Also, many highly successful leaders place pictures of their foes in their offices. The Microsoft team that was dedicated to unseating Sun Microsystems as a force in servers plastered their office walls with Scott McNealy's, Sun's CEO, picture. They were constantly reminded that their enemy was close at hand. Every time Microsoft won a battle against Sun, the Microsoft team would remove one of Scott McNealy's pictures from their walls.

From the first day as Lord of the Admiralty of the British Navy, Winston Churchill had a large chart of the North Sea hung on the wall behind his desk. Then, every day the duty officer marked with small flags the position of the principal ships of the German Navy. Each morning, on entering the room, Churchill stood before the chart and studied the whereabouts of the High Seas Fleet. His purpose 'was to inculcate in myself and those working with me a sense of ever-present danger'.

Respect the Power of Momentum

Your ability to harness momentum will determine whether your business or career will be in a virtuous circle or a vicious circle. Momentum is like compounded interest. Initial efforts may not yield substantial results early on. However, as time progresses, your successes will build on each other and the impossible will become the inevitable. As long as you can stay the course, the time dispersion between each victory will contract while the corresponding rewards will be increasingly enriching.

• When you are making public speeches, take the questions at specified breaks in your presentation or at the end of your speech.
• Department stores have largely eliminated multiple cash registers in each department. Paying for each item (e.g. shoes, men's clothes, jewelry, etc.) slows down the consumer's momentum because he feels the pain each time his credit card is charged.
• In debates, I have witnessed native English speakers correcting one (only marginally inappropriate) word uttered by the non-native English speaker, just to slow down his momentum in conveying his position.
• In sports, the coach of the lagging team will often call a time-out when the winning team is scoring a lot of points, just to derail the better performing players' momentum. There are similar analogies in negotiations. (Interestingly, one way to undermine your opponent psychologically is to ask him what he is doing to make his forehand so effective today. Swinging a tennis racket is second nature to an accomplished tennis player and the act of making him think about this natural act will impede his performance.)

You must do everything in your power to generate positive results no matter how seemingly marginal they may appear. You must acknowledge small victories, keep morale high and place your teams' sights on the next target.

You must also be vigilant against deterioration in morale and the occurrence of consecutive hiccups. Small deviances in expected behavior such as laxer dress codes and lack of punctuality should be detected early and eliminated. These are early warning signals that operations are beginning to deteriorate and that drift is beginning to metastasize.

Movement Facilitates Rapid Response

David Allen, author of Ready for Anything, points out, "In karate, you quickly learn that when you are sparring with an opponent, you never stop moving. It's much easier to respond and move quickly - even when you need to go in the opposite direction - if you have already been in motion. It takes much more effort to begin to move than to change direction. If you are positively engaged, with any part of your life, it is easier to deal with change and to get anything else done."