Tiny adjustments can make a big difference. Sometimes if you just slow down a little bit, you’ll see big gains:
- American Airlines is saving $4 million by having their planes taxi with only one engine on.
- Southwest slowed its flights by one to three minutes and is saving $42 million.
- Con-Way Fright shaved 3 mph off the top speed of their trucks and saved $13.3 million and are only adding 20-30 minutes to shipments.
The obvious application for churches might be to drive the church bus slower, but I’m thinking bigger picture. Instead of focusing all your energy and effort on the big splash, focus on the little things. This should be encouraging advice for cash-, volunteer- and time-strapped churches that can’t pull of the big splash. It’s OK if you can’t.
Instead, focus on the little things. Communicate consistently. Double-check your work. Greet people with a smile. These small steps will have a much bigger impact with less effort than any massive initiative you could launch. (links via 37Signals & thoughts)
Greg Simmons
May 16, 2008
I volunteer at a smaller church. Thanks for the encouragement. You made some very good points that I plan to pass on to others.
Thanks again and Happy Friday!
Joshua Cody
May 16, 2008
Here’s another…UPS decided to favor right hand turns and saved $600 million.