Keep going to grow results and harness the compound effect
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By Kim Deans
How often do we give up on something too soon? We have all begun a course of action enthusiastically and then found ourselves losing motivation and wondering if it’s worth the effort when the results we want aren’t quick to appear. Giving up too soon often prevents people from transitioning to more regenerative agricultural systems, as well as achieving health, fitness and financial goals, along with making progress in many other areas.
Deciding to commit and to trust the process when results take time to emerge is a how we unlock the power of compounding, where small actions that we commit to over time can generate big results. The compound effect is not limited to returns on financial investments, it occurs across all areas of our lives, wherever we decide to invest our time, energy and other resources.
I frequently witness the compound effect at work in soil revitalisation programs. We can’t buy soil health in a bag, the results we seek come from building a foundation of committed, strategic management actions taken over time. On a recent yearly soil monitoring visit with clients, we observed gradual improvements in soil health and pasture diversity, in the last two years we have been counting more than seven plant species in a grazing paddock that was a monoculture six years ago. These results have been created by a long-term commitment to improved grazing management over time (not inputs of seed or fertiliser), the compound effect in action.
I also get to see the impact of the compounding effect in coaching relationships. The decision a client makes to take responsibility and commit to taking consistent action over the time we work together is directly linked to the results they gain from the process. When we attend workshops and training programs our decision to take what we learn and put it into practice through taking small consistent action over time is what creates long term benefits from the time we invest in learning new skills.
Understanding Agriculture explain the “Rule of Compounding” in their three rules of adaptive stewardship as[1]: “The Rule of Compounding follows the concept that every management decision or practice applied creates a series of compounding and cascading effects that are either positive or negative in nature. Astute daily observation allows the practitioner to determine the compounding effects that are occurring and if adjustments need to be made relative to adaptive management. Careful observation on a routine basis allows the practitioner to develop a keen sense of intuition, which facilitates better management decisions that will create positive compounding effects.”
Our decisions and actions can compound positively or negatively. Some ways we can support the compounding effect to work more positively in our favour include:
embracing a growth mindset and the process of ongoing, continuous learning and improvement
establishing and supporting habits to create consistency in our actions
avoiding tiny losses, what we stop doing is as important as what we start doing
surrounding ourselves with supportive people
monitoring and reviewing our progress backwards, against a baseline of where we started from instead of measuring forwards against what we are heading towards
focusing and managing for what we want, not what we don’t want
focusing on managing factors within our control, instead of factors outside of our control
taking action instead of making excuses
In ten years’ time we will either be celebrating our progress or collecting excuses, the choice is ours to make.
“You wouldn't plant a seed and then dig it up every few minutes to see if it has grown. So why do you keep questioning yourself, your hard work and your decisions? Have patience ... and keep watering your seeds.”― Steven Bartlett