MARGINAL LOSSES

摘要

The British cycling team used to be known as a laughing stock. Not any more. Team GB has won 16 gold medals in the last two Olympics and British riders have won three out of the last four Tours de France. How has this happened? Many have put it down to the concept of 'marginal gains' where all aspects of the team are looked at in minute detail and improved, with the result that the aggregate of all the small changes brings about a significant shift in overall performance. So if ironing out all the small annoyances, inefficiencies and worries of a group of people has had such a positive effect on them, could the opposite be true if the process was reversed?