“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.” – Peter Marshall.
We often think we need to make big changes to see big results. But the truth is, small, everyday tweaks can have a huge impact over time. If one of your teams became 1% more productive 100 times, their overall productivity would increase by over 2.7 times. By finding and implementing these 1% improvements across all your teams, the collective impact can be massive.
So Why Don’t We Prioritize Small Changes?
Even though we know small improvements can be powerful, we often ignore them. They feel like a hassle and it’s easy to focus on the immediate inconvenience rather than the long-term benefits. For example, a software development team might hyper-focus on delivering features, causing them to de-prioritize essential platform work like building a stronger integration testing layer. While the new feature may bring immediate user satisfaction, the lack of robust testing can lead to long-term stability issues, eventually affecting overall product quality.
As David H. Maister said, “Professionals usually understand the importance of these activities and know what to do to execute them. They intend to do them. But they do not always get around to them. After all, each of these actions involves short-term ‘costs’ for a long-term benefit. Left to themselves, professionals, like all human beings, find it all too easy to take care of today, at the risk of underinvesting in tomorrow.” You can help your teams think long-term by investing in the short term. A good place to start is by introspecting the practices your teams employ.
Focus On Improving Development Practices
Start with simple, actionable steps that can be implemented without much disruption. Identify areas where small adjustments can lead to immediate, positive changes. Here are some practices that may have room for small improvements on your teams:
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Work in Small Increments: Work in small increments so teams can keep the code easy to manage without feeling overwhelmed. By breaking tasks into manageable updates, teams can make clear, small improvements to the code.
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Automate Coding Standards: Use tools to automatically enforce coding rules and best practices while coding. This helps your teams reduce errors and inconsistencies, making the code easier to understand, modify, and extend.
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Run Pair Programming Sessions: Pair programming helps maintain code quality through teamwork, real-time code reviews, and knowledge sharing among developers. By encouraging your team to work in pairs, developers catch issues early, understand the code better, and share knowledge across the team.
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Refactor Regularly: Regularly improving the code structure, readability, and quality through refactoring helps keep the code maintainable. Make this a regular part of your team’s development so they can provide better delivery, stability, and ongoing innovation.
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Decouple from Third Parties: Reduce the use of third-party software to keep your code flexible and easy to manage. Use general interfaces like RESTful APIs instead of specific tools like Stripe’s proprietary API for payment processing. This makes your code more portable, easier to test, and adaptable to different solutions if needed.
These habits might seem small, but over time, they can lead to significant improvements in productivity and progress toward long-term goals. To see more healthy habits and practices that could benefit your teams, view our open practices repository.
The Bottom Line
Remind yourself and your teams that every small improvement helps move the organization forward. By consistently applying these minor improvements, you’ll build towards something much greater over time.