The Force Multiplier Effect

We look around our worlds, as we each meander through our daily lives, and we see any number of people just trying to “get by.” They wake up in the mornings and perform a routine series of activities until such time that they can go home; washing, rinsing, and repeating the next day. So many things in our lives, and their effectiveness, are measured by a stick of limited means: An easily quantifiable action producing an easily quantifiable result in the manner that an equal force begets an equal reaction.

There are things in this life, however, that aren’t so discrete. Some things add to the equal force-equal result equation allows the result to become worth more than the sum of the parts put into it.

There are many things in nature that exhibit the same sort of phenomenon: Take the particles that you find inside the nucleus of an atom: Protons and neutrons. In and of themselves, they have limited value. When they are held together with their opposing charges, they can lump themselves into a (known number) of 118 different combinations. These combinations are the elements which we find in the universe—from the common sorts of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen to the less-common such as gold and uranium. In various combinations they make life possible and each of those things that we take for granted on a daily basis. By themselves, the universe’s smallest particles mean little to nothing in the greater scheme of things, for instance; but the sum of their parts is greater than science can fathom yet.

I first realized this when I was working at Windy’s Pizza (we were also a bar). In fact, this was my first “real job” working for someone else: Where I learned that, while sometimes work is just a monotonous process that you go through. Other times, however, there are things that increase your morale so much that the process which you’re going through becomes something that you’re more effective, efficient, and, ultimately, better at. At Windy’s, this was music. Clint Revelette and I would play music while we were cleaning up on a Friday evening after busy dinner rushes.

I would go through other jobs and see many, many other examples of this morale-building principle. I quickly learned that music in itself wasn’t a fundamental force multiplying principle; instead, it was morale that I determined to be a fundamental force multiplier.

Expect this to be merely the tip of the iceberg for this topic, for it’s a very important addition to the toolbox of a leader.