Cumulative actions are compounding effects - the sum of the whole effect is worth more than the individual effects of the parts. The phrase actually comes from medicine, where it can be lethal. Repeated consumption of a drug, even small amounts, can accumulate enough in your body to become toxic. However, we can think of it more positively in terms of actions throughout our day that can collect into a habit. About 43% of our actions or behaviors are habitual - it is how we maintain the cognitive space to function as humans.
Most daily actions evaporate. Some accumulate. To pinpoint the ones that accumulate, and identify the accumulation as positive or negative can be a very enlightening exercise. James Clear writes in his very popular Atomic Habits that, “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity."
This accumulation of “votes” or actions can happen in our personal lives or our professional lives. The exercise below can help make them more intentional.
STAND-UP EXERCISE
In a white-boarding tool, ask the team to identify daily actions that are serving them, ones that they could begin to accumulate. And then in a separate column ask which actions are not serving them, and perhaps are negatively accumulating. Leaving the responses open to personal and professional scenarios opens up talk about scheduling a day, or work/life balance, or some challenges of working remotely. This exercise works especially well in a format where team members can “up vote” or +1 other’s responses.
