In modern law enforcement, where a seemingly unending stream of challenges abound and resources and staff are often stretched thin, the need for innovative strategies to enhance organizational effectiveness is critical. As agencies across the nation grapple with new and evolving threats, community expectations, legal mandates, and daunting budgetary constraints, leaders constantly seek new approaches that can drive meaningful change and achieve tangible results.

Groundbreaking Idea

If Fignon had only known that 21-day race—and ultimately losing—would come down to just eight seconds, would he and his team have done anything differently in the days leading up to the finish? This is the very question Brailsford asked himself.

At the start of the 2010 professional cycling season, though it had fielded teams and numerous riders each year of the 100-year-old event, not a single British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France. Brailsford’s desire to change that led him to devise his groundbreaking idea involving marginal gains. What followed would go on to revolutionize the worlds of professional cycling, sports, and business, as well as personal and organizational transformation.

Brailsford introduced his bold concept to British Cycling, the main national governing body for cycle sport in Great Britain. He assured them he could achieve remarkable improvements—and results—throughout the team and program. This would be done, he asserted, through the cumulative impact of small, incremental improvements to every identifiable area of the team’s operation. His premise—simple, yet profound—was that by focusing on making small, 1% improvements in numerous areas of team performance, the cumulative effect would yield remarkable results overall. He theorized that if a 1% improvement were made to 100 individual areas of the team’s performance, the result would be a net gain of 100% in overall performance.

Under this premise, Brailsford and his team’s leadership set out to meticulously deconstruct every aspect of the team’s operations. Everything was scrutinized for better efficiency, from the more traditional areas like training routines, location, and equipment to those lesser factors such as quality of sleep, body physiology, and nutrition. Brailsford’s assertion was that by proactively identifying every marginal aspect of the team’s operations that could be improved upon, the collective result would be a statistical and tangible advantage over every other team.

Theory to Dynasty

Brailsford and his management team set out on a relentless pursuit to identify targets for marginal gains throughout the team’s operations. In doing so, they left no stone unturned in their quest for excellence. From optimizing each rider’s training routine—on and off the bike—to individual equipment choices and nutrition, every aspect of the team's operations was scrutinized and refined.

To highlight a single point no other team had addressed, Brailsford had every rider undergo a sleep study that calculated, among many things, the riders’ body position and physiology when sleeping. While this may seem excessive, consider the analysis in the context of a monthlong race traversing the entirety of France.

Each night, the riders slept in different beds and/or hotels. Many can recall lamenting those nights on their own travels, where strange beds offered far-from-ideal sleep. Now, imagine compounding this by 21 successive days that involved racing 100 miles on a bicycle, and the concerns become obvious. Brailsford’s Tour de France team decided to transport and set up each of the riders’ personal bed and pillows every night so that regardless of the city they were in that day, they would sleep in their familiar bed, in the same positioning, to afford the best rest and recovery possible.

By mid-2011, the marginal gains concept was being applied throughout the team in nearly every area they could identify. In his presentation to British Cycling the year before, Brailsford had predicted the team would see notable results within five years. But that first year, the GBCT shocked the world with a win by Mark Cavendish at the coveted 166-mile Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Road World Championship—the first British win since 1965.

What happened the following year was unprecedented. Bradley Wiggins not only became the first British winner of the Tour de France in its history, but he also went on to win four gold medals and one bronze in the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In fact, the British Olympic Team would go on to win 12 medals in the Olympics that year—eight of them gold—making Great Britain the winningest nation in all of cycling. What followed from there became a dynasty: the GBCT won the Tour de France again in 2013 and every year from 2015 to 2019.

Incremental Improvements, Big Results

While Brailsford's methodology originated in the world of cycling, the concept of marginal gains and its principles have long since transcended racing, finding equal resonance in fields ranging from business and education to healthcare and personal development. Many organizations and influential leaders have followed suit with their own iterations of its application with incredible results.

In 2025, our profession stands at a crossroads. Our task of confronting complex challenges while continually striving to uphold the highest standards of service and professionalism for our communities has only gotten greater. The concept of marginal gains offers a compelling and proven framework for driving meaningful change within our organizations at every level. By identifying and implementing small, incremental improvements across myriad operational areas, we have the power to effect profound transformation—not only in how we serve our communities but also the way we shape our profession’s future.

Like individual cycling teams, law enforcement organizations throughout the country share many similarities. They pull from the same talent pool; are subject to many of the same legal requirements and constraints; primarily use the same equipment; and, though all communities differ to some degree, have largely the same expectations. So, what separates an exceptional organization from others?

Using the marginal gains model in law enforcement requires some thought and imagination. As a leader in your organization, challenge yourself to seek out where you could apply the concept of marginal gains within your own agency. How you answer could touch on many areas common to the profession and unique to your circumstances. Whether you are a sergeant over a squad of patrol officers or the chief of an entire department, there are areas within your span of control to identify and improve upon, if only by 1%. Given enough time and effort, each of us could identify 100 things in our organizations that could be improved by 1% or more.

Applying the concept of 1% improvements could be a catalyst for great success in any agency, and it has the potential to fundamentally transform your organization in every area of your choosing. To conceptualize what this could look like at one level of a police organization, take, for example, the ten most basic functions of a patrol officer, based on probable frequency. Then break each of these down further to 10 identifiable subsections and improve each of them by a minimum of 1%. A 1% improvement to each of them would thereby equate to a realized gain of 100% improvement in overall patrol functions. Again, this is only one of many examples. This concept can be applied in any area of your organization’s operations.

Conclusion

Tangible and immediately actionable results can be achieved by incorporating the principles of refined, marginal gains into your organization. Task those under your command to identify every conceivable area of their operation and systematically and incrementally improve upon each of them. As leaders, we owe it to the communities we serve and to those we guide and represent to be the best we can. Regardless of your position or assignment in your own agency, take the initiative and be the change that draws others to follow suit. The cumulative effects of the marginal gains concept can create meaningful change, fundamentally transforming your organization and the community.