The power of leverage – an example

I do this exercise in several of my talks and it works like magic everytime. In fact, I don’t need to be there to make this work and you can do this exercise within your own company or group or department.

Last night in Bangalore, I was speaking to a small group of people on how to make the most out of the web. The first exercise was simple –

Everyone had to mention one website that they found it extremely useful for their life and/or career. There was a volunteer writing down these websites. If the website was already on the board, the next person had to choose something else. With about twenty people, we got about twenty different websites (apart from Google, Yahoo, MSN etc.) and the reason why they were the favorites for those people.

At the end of the exercise, I asked everyone whether each one of them got at least one website that they were not aware of before. The answer was a big positive YES.

That’s a simple demonstration of the power of leverage there. What we decided was that every 4-6 weeks the group would do this exercise on their own so that its easy for the group to discover new and interesting resources on the web.

As you can see, you can apply this to many other things and it works like magic. As a group you are always more powerful and have higher leverage than as individuals.