It’s a tough time to be running a business. With persistent anxiety around the economy, leaders struggle to make critical decisions, oftentimes succumbing to indecision or being overly hasty and committing to ill thought-out changes to the business model.

A sticking point many are grappling with is the disbursement of resources across departments and projects; is it better to invest more on internal development, or funnel more money into marketing efforts? 

There is no one size fits all solution, as each organization has its own circumstances and goals, but BigSpeak EVP Ken Sterling has two go-to strategies developed through working with educators at USC and authors and speakers Ben Hunt-Davis and James Clear that can be adapted for most leaders’ needs.

The first method entails dialing in on the ROI of each potential change leaders are considering. This approach is appropriate for standard, clean-cut business issues. Since ROI metrics are measured quantitatively, the associated  number crunching can cleanly show what area resources should be funneled towards.

The second way Sterling employs relies on making small, every-day changes that lead to major changes over time. Based on a story told in top keynote speaker  James Clear’ best-selling Atomic Habits, this strategy is based on manageable, marginal gains building to a big success. Clear relates the zero to hero tale of the British cycling team, who went from consistently failing to medal at Olympic events and losing the Tour de France time after time to winning gold and bringing home several championship titles. The team did not overhaul their training processes or switch out members, but invested in aerodynamic clothing and the most comfortable bike seats available to set their existing athletes up for success. This case evidences that businesses achieve success through minor changes and making use of what is already available. 

For the full details and further examples, read the initial article over at Forbes.