🤟 The (often underestimated) power of compounding and consistency

Hi Reader,

Today I want to touch upon the power of both consistency and compounding. Both are powerful in and of themselves, but when combined…

BOOM! That’s where the true magic happens.

Consistency

The inspiring Steven Bartlett (worth a follow if you don’t already) shared a powerful page from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, in which he shares a couple of examples of the power of consistency.

So simple, and so powerful. The one on reading inspired me to start reading again after a period when I didn’t manage to get to it. Following that twenty pages per day minimum, I’ve read 3 books in the past 3 weeks (and it felt super easy).

Besides saving, reading, and walking, you can enjoy the benefits consistency to almost any area of life: mental health, gym, cooking, parenting, studying, playing an instrument, building relationships, building your career, expanding your business, learning a new skill, etc.

Small actions executed with consistency get the job done.

Compounding

One of the most underestimated principles in growth is compounding. Compounding, coming from the financial world and mostly used to describe investments, is a form of exponential growth.

Often, people miss out on its potential simply because they don't fully grasp the power of it.

A few simple examples of exponential growth:

1. Doubling a penny every day

Day 1: $0.01
Day 2: $0.02
Day 3: $0.04
...
Day 30: $5,368,709.12

2. Corona infections (if 1 person infects 2 others)

Day 1: 1 person
Day 2: 3 people
Day 3: 9 people
…
Day 15: 4,782,969 people

3. Changing the way you run meetings (if 1 team starts and influences 1 other team per month)

Month 1: 1 team
Month 2: 2 teams
Month 3: 4 teams
...
Month 12: 2,048 teams

Seeing this, you see the unbelievable power of compounding.

Consistency + compounding = ❤️

When combined, consistency and compounding can drive extraordinary growth.

Last week, I worked with ChatGPT to show me the power of consistency and compounding related to the growth of our community across various platforms of Corporate Rebels.

Instagram

Our Instagram account is really taking off lately (thanks to the great work done by Polina). Consistency combined with a solid weekly growth rate does the job.

If we continue down this path, our account will reach millions of followers in a few years.

Note how important small changes in your growth rate are. What might seem like a small improvement of ‘just’ 0.5% results in insane improvements over the long run.

(Currently, we’re far above the growth rates in the graph (~20% per week), but we don’t expect to maintain that level consistently. Over the past few months, we’re at ~1.7% per week.)

LinkedIn

Similarly, on our LinkedIn account, small weekly growth percentages can result in significant follower increases over time:

Newsletter

The growth of this newsletter also exemplifies compounding. Consistency in terms of publication combined with content that quite a few people seem to enjoy pave the way to solid subscriber growth in the years to come:

Rebel Cell network

Now, let’s see what consistency and compounding can do for our global network of pioneering organizations: Rebel Cells.

Disclaimer: To be honest, this one is more of a ‘crystal ball’ exercise than the above ones. Rebel Cells are fairly new (we started 6 months ago), so growth rates are fairly high at the moment (around 40% per month) and we have no clue yet what rate we could consistently keep up.

However, here are some interesting scenarios for how it could play out:

While this is nothing more than a lovely ambition of what the network could look like, it provides a compelling argument that, in this area too, we should focus on consistency and compounding.

The magic will unfold, I truly believe that.

Understand how it impacts your work

Now, let’s turn to you. Whether you work on scaling an internal change movement, on influencing the way teams in your organization work, or on supporting more people to find meaningful work, it’s important to understand the power of compounding and consistency and what it can do for you.

Focus on small, regular actions, and unlock significant results over time. Stay consistent, stay committed, and watch the exponential growth unfold.

Updates from Corporate Rebels HQ

Here's a quick overview of everything happening at Corporate Rebels:

We’ve launched new Rebel Cells! The first Italian Rebel Cell is live, and we’ve launched a second Rebel Cell in The Netherlands (first one is already full of pioneering organizations). Apply here (also for all other countries).
On 21 and 22 November 2024, a global gathering of pioneering organizations will take place in Sevilla, Spain. It will be the first ever in-person gathering of all member organizations of the Rebel Cell network. Two days of inspiring sessions, connection, passion, and a visit to Indaero, the company we acquired and is going through a radical transformation to self-management. Only available for Rebel Cell members. You know how to join by now 😅
Last week, I shared the first potential cover designs for our new book. We’d love to have your opinion too. Check it out here.

New article

A new article has been published on our website earlier this week:

Revolutionizing Work Culture: A Case Study on HR-ON's Progressive People Practices
Our latest blog post dives into the inspiring practices of HR-ON, a Danish self-managing organization. It includes video clips from our recent interview with founder Ali E. Cevik and his colleague Nanna Maria Mørch. Some very valuable insights! Read the blog post here.

What inspired us

Here's something noteworthy we discovered this past week that you’re going to love:

Insights into the ongoing efforts of a Colombian firm to ‘flatten the hierarchy’
Great write-up of the approach, progress, and challenges of moving away from traditional hierarchical structures. A case study on Avinsa, a Colombian food processing company with 350 employees, written by the always great Michael Lee and colleagues. Particularly liked this quote: “To truly flatten an organization, it’s not enough to build anew; one must also actively dismantle and guard against the resurrection of the old.” Read it here.

Your weekly challenge

At Corporate Rebels, we believe that small changes lead to big results. That's why we challenge you each week to make a small but significant change. This week....

In line with my love story on compounding and consistency, I challenge you to look at which areas of your work can benefit from that magical combination. Then, once you identified the area, go to ChatGPT and ask it to create some graphs. Print it out, display it where you work, and get the inspiration you need to start delivering consistently.

The prompt I used:

“Give me a graph to project our newsletter growth. Start at 30k subscribers and make 3 graphs for growth, for weekly growth of 0.5% and 1% and 1.5%, and for a period of 5 years. Lengthen the full Y axis to make the lower part more readable.”

Cheers,

As soon as you're ready, here are 3 ways we can help:

Membership: Become a Corporate Rebels member and benefit from monthly online events, in-depth case studies, practical courses, and a global community of pioneers.
Masterclass: We've sold out all available seats for the first September cohort of "Running and Scaling Self-Managing Organizations," so we're opening a second one focused on the Asian/Australian-friendly time zones; this extra cohort kicks off on September 24. Enroll here.
Rebel Cells: Join a global network of pioneering organizations. Rebel Cells are local groups of progressive firms coming together to learn, share, and connect. Currently live in 13 countries.

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🤘🏻 Corporate Rebels