What is the smallest step ?

The question at the heart of this episode is super useful for those facing big hairy goals or stretching aspirations.  It shows how to achieve BIG things with small steps... TINY steps even!   

You might be already familiar with the Chinese proverb that translates to:
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"

This powerful question will help you get clear on how to start the journey, what could be the path and what possibilities could emerge along the way.  Enjoy!  

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the fifteenth episode of the powerful questions podcast. My name is David Shaked. In this episode of the podcast, I’m continuing with the theme of “getting unstuck” which I started in episode thirteen. The question I bring forward this time is “What is the smallest step?”. 

I am recording this episode in the middle of December and just before the end of the year. It’s a time many of us reflect on the year we just had, wonder what the new year ahead can bring and set ourselves ambitious goals or resolutions to pursue.  It seemed to me that this particular powerful question can come handy for those new year’s resolutions and goals

“What is the smallest step?” is another favourite question from the practice of Solution Focus coaching. Strangely, finding that smallest step can actually enable you to achieve great progress on your plans, dreams and projects.

You might ask how you can achieve big breakthroughs by identifying and pursuing the smallest step. It’s truly counterintuitive. In fact, the bigger the challenge, the smaller that step would probably be!

How does it work?

Well, the question “what is the smallest step” invites you to find the absolute smallest action you could take, straight away, to make progress with something. In the process of getting to the smallest step, you actually create or figure out a clearer path towards your goals which, in turn, gives you clarity on how to achieve it. It also gets you going. Each small step you make builds the energy and motivation to carry on. But I’ll cover all of this in detail later in this episode.

In short, the idea behind this question is that you pose it 

– “What is the smallest step you could take?” – 

to someone who is feeling stuck or uncertain about something they would like to achieve or make progress with. You then allow them a little time to think about it.  when they respond with their own idea of the smallest step they could take, you can affirm their response by, perhaps, saying “that’s a great idea!”. Then you follow on that with “what would be A SMALLER step than that?”. Again, you allow them time to ponder; 

when they eventually respond, you again affirm their response, and then again ask “What would be EVEN SMALLER than that?”. You continue to pose this question again and again, each time they respond with their ideas for yet a smaller step they could take. In fact, you can repeat it MANY TIMES. 

At some point, they will arrive at a truly small step, a TINY step even, that can be done easily and almost straight away! You’ll both know when that step has finally been identified, but I will give you some possible clues later on.

What’s the point of arriving at such a small step? Especially if you’re trying to achieve something big or when you are feeling deeply stuck with a large project or a complex challenge? Aren’t we wasting our time in pursuing tiny steps?

Well… the point is that, rather than think about big steps or how to make substantial breakthroughs, you find a TINY step and take it as soon as possible. This is actually crucial because once you complete that step, you will have achieved something. You will also feel a little better and more energised, because you’re beginning to make progress. AND, you will have identified a clearer path to making further progress because you are already aware of what could be the next, slightly bigger, step you could take from answering “What is an even smaller step?” so many times. 

Another thing you MIGHT experience after completing that first, smallest step is that new ideas or possible paths towards your goal emerge – ideas you were simply unable to think about or see clearly beforehand. The achievement of one small step is the starting point for the creation of new possibilities.

Let me share a little story of my first experience with this question. Many years ago, when I was just learning about Appreciative Inquiry, Solution Focus and other generative, strengths-based approaches to change, I felt inspired to apply what I was learning to another practice area I knew well. It was at the time I was starting my consultancy, after working for several years as a business improvement leader in Johnson & Johnson.

In that role, I became a Lean Six Sigma practitioner and even achieved the highest possible level of certification, Master Black Belt. If you know nothing about any of these practices, don’t worry – all you need to know is that both Lean Thinking and Six Sigma are very useful approaches to improving the different processes in an organisation and to making them more efficient and effective. They can be applied to most areas of any organisation from manufacturing to sales, human resources to customer services. They have been adopted by many organisations and helped them provide better services and products at a lower cost.

The strengths-based approaches to change I was learning at the time felt very energising and different from anything I had practised up to that point in any of my projects. I had a hunch that I could integrate them with what I knew from Lean Six Sigma – but I had no idea how to do that. 

There was a huge gap between how Lean Six Sigma proposed to address business challenges compared to the kind of questions and focus the strengths-based approaches promoted. They seemed to be going in opposite directions. Lean Six Sigma was focused on understanding, in detail, the root causes of waste and inefficiencies, while the strengths-based approaches raised questions about the most efficient processes and the best results.

My first exposure to the power of this question happened while I participated in a Solution Focus workshop with Mark McKergow and Jenny Clark who are leading practitioners and thought leaders of that practice.  In the workshop, we learnt about this particular question “What is the smallest step?” and how to use it. We were then paired up with another participant and invited to practise this question. 

When my partner, Kate Usher, asked me what I wanted to achieve, I said I wanted to combine Lean Six Sigma with what I was learning about strengths-based change and to find potential clients who might be interested in that unique combination. At the time I had NO IDEA how to proceed.

Kate started by asking me “What is the smallest step you could take?”. My first answer came fairly quickly and was “I’d like to talk to some of my clients and contacts about this potential combination, how fresh it is, and what it could offer them. I hope I can get them interested.” Kate, who, I suspect, knew nothing about what I was saying or trying to achieve, still said “What a great idea!”. She proceeded by asking “What could be a little smaller step you could take?”.

At this point, I got stuck. I had never thought beyond my first idea for a possible step.

After a couple of minutes, I replied that I could probably look at my list of contacts and identify who might be most interested. I felt that would help me focus on and contact the right people and increase the chances they would value what I would be offering.

Again, Kate affirmed my new idea by saying “Sounds great!” but she didn’t stop… she carried on asking “What could be smaller still?” again and again. In fact, she kept going for about 20 minutes, giving me plenty of time to come up with a new idea each time. Whenever I came up with an idea for a small step, smaller than the last idea, she encouraged me by appreciating the new idea and then patiently asking again what could be smaller still. 

In that process, I realised I needed to achieve many other things before I could contact any of my clients. First, I needed to be much clearer in my mind about what this unique combination would be all about, what would I actually do when I combined these approaches in practice, and where would it be most useful. 

Eventually, I arrived at my smallest step, which was truly tiny and easy to achieve. My tiniest step was to print some of my Lean Six Sigma materials and some of my Appreciative Inquiry materials and to hang them on a wall so that I could look at them together, at the same time. That’s it. I didn’t even commit to bringing the two practices together. That smallest step was so simple to do! I felt truly relieved and promised Kate I would do it as soon as I returned home.

I came home, printed out all of these materials and put them in front of me. The following few hours were perhaps some of the most creative, energising and productive hours I have ever experienced. I could identify many ways to connect the dots, came up with practical applications and gained clarity that was helpful when talking to others about it. Later on, I achieved so much – from securing exciting client assignments to writing articles about this new and unique practice I created that I named Strength-based Lean Six Sigma, to public speaking opportunities, and even publishing a book on the topic. And all of that started by completing that first smallest step!

Since then, I have, of course, used this simple question with myself and many others. Each time, the question has surprised me, and the people I pose it to, with the clarity and motivation it can create.

So, that was my first experience now let’s get back to you… how might you use this question?

One way to use it is with yourself. Pick an important project, at work or even a personal project you want to work on and feel a little stuck with – or maybe you can start by just stating something you would like to achieve. Next ask yourself, what is the smallest step you could take to make ANY progress at all. Write what comes to your mind down. Then ask “what could be a smaller step than that?”. Allow yourself some time to think and write down the ideas that come to mind… continue to ask “what could be even smaller?” as many times as you can and write down your ideas for smaller and smaller steps. Eventually, you will arrive at a truly small step that you will know straight away is easy enough to take right now. You’ll sense when the right idea of a small step arrives, and you’ll probably feel a lot more relieved at that stage.

Another way, which I find even more effective, is to have someone else asking you these questions or for you to pose this question to someone else to support them in making progress. In fact, you can even take turns being the person asking and the one responding and, in this way, help each other.

And of course, if you are working with or facilitating a team working on a project, you can pose this question to the team in a similar way, allowing plenty of time to come up with small steps, and even smaller steps, until the members of the team arrive at the smallest steps they could take.

This question, “What is the smallest step?” is also a great follow on to some of the other powerful questions I shared in my podcast. For example, you could ask it after working through the questions “What do you want?”, “What is your dream?” or the miracle question.

By the way, depending on the context and challenge you, someone else or a team is facing, the question can be adapted slightly to better fit with the topic or challenge. So, a few possible versions might be:

What is the EASIEST step you could take? Followed by: What might be easier than that?

What is the QUICKEST step you could take? Followed by: What might be quicker than that?

or

What is the CHEAPEST step you could take? Followed by: What might be even cheaper than that?

These are just a few alternative versions of the smallest step question you could use. There could be many other versions. It depends on what is perceived to be the block for progress. Is it concern about taking big steps, worry about complex steps, about the time or cost required etc. 

A common question people have in their minds is how many times should they repeat the question to find an even smaller step? Well, in fact, I am not aware of any rule of thumb about how many times you need to repeat the question. Your process might end with three or four repetitions, or after twenty. You will actually know when you have arrived at a small enough step because suddenly, you’ll feel a lot lighter and clearer about it. You’ll also feel motivated to get it done. If you are posing this question to others, they might give you a signal they have reached their tiniest step by smiling suddenly, showing signs of real excitement or even by bursting out with a laughter. It is probably coming out of the sense of the relief they will suddenly experience. What is very clear to me is that I have never seen anyone coming up with a truly tiny step they can easily pursue after the first time I asked the question. The first one or two ideas that come to mind and are expressed are typically the most obvious ideas this person has already considered prior to the conversation with you. They are typically too big to complete straight away. Repetition is VERY helpful here as well as the occasional encouragement and affirmation that I mentioned earlier. They encourage you and those you pose the question to, to really think.

And finally, whatever you do, please try to control your urge to propose possible small steps when posing this question to others. In fact, the less you know about the challenge or topic and the simpler you keep your inquiry, the better! So many of us want to help others who are struggling by offering possible solutions from our experience – if the idea didn’t come from the person who is actually facing the challenge it has less of a chance to work well for that person and you may find that your well-meaning suggestion derailed the process.

So, this was a slightly longer episode about a simple question! And now, as we reach the end of this episode, who could you easily help by posing this question to? 

Who else might it feel even easier to pose this question to? 

Who might be easier still?