Compound Leverage – A Core Fundamental to Spark Your Fly Wheel!

By Dean R. DeLisle

When talking to our Power Plan Workshop’s attendees last week and teaching our B.A.M.M (B-Balance, A-Alignment, M-Measure, M-Momentum) technique, we transitioned from Compound Leverage to the fundamentals of “Balance” and “Alignment”. Then on to teaching the magical “Momentum” that we all experience once we get these forces moving.

Then it hit me! One of the most critical parts of B.A.M.M, “Alignment” absolutely requires “Compound Leverage”. While reviewing the book “Good to Great”, I vividly think about the story of the Fly Wheel. It has to do with a 5000 lb Fly Wheel, on a spindle. Then it talks about the effort that is required to even move the Fly Wheel, let alone get it to turn. It describes how hard it is to push to even first move the Fly Wheel. As you get others to help, the more you push, the easier it gets to move the Fly Wheel. Finally, getting to a point when it actually begins to move at a faster rate, with less effort – you experience “Momentum”.

Business works the same way. One of the most important components is people. We must apply the critical fundamental of Compound Leverage to achieve Alignment with less effort. Compound Leverage simply means that when we work with employees, vendors, partners, customers or anyone else whom we value as part of growing our business, we must understand what’s in it for them. How can we help, what can we offer them besides the promised or requested payment in exchange for helping us arrive?

Compound leverage can be as simple as extending a compliment, showing gratitude, giving an extra payment, a bonus, payment ON TIME, an EARLY payment or a referral. The list is endless! If we take the time to make important people part of our business growth plan and expect them to engage us at the level that we need to take those next steps, we need to return the favor!

When this atmosphere is in place, we soon discover that employees, vendors and partners all work with less management and customers arrive and stay with less management. Wow! What type of business would we have if we needed less management and less effort because we had more momentum? Sounds like a more fun and more profitable organization that would require less sweat! Much like the story of the Fly Wheel.

Stop Working So Hard!