Big Dreams? Think Small!

(A Take-Away from the book, “Think Small” by Owain Service & Rory Gallagher)

By Judith Planas-Aguilar
October 10, 2019

“THINK SMALL’ IN THE OVERALL MANAGEMENT OF PERSONNEL

This writer appreciates the features and major propositions of Owain Service and Rory
Gallagher which are applicable to personnel management. These are:

1) The propositions are validated by behavioral science researches.

Service and Gallagher cull the concepts from reliable academic studies conducted over the
past 50 years, which have been adapted by no less than the Nudge Unit of the of the UK
government in Downing Street.

The concept is an offshoot of Nobel prize-winner Daniel Kahneman’s dual process theory
that applies the’ fast and slow thinking systems’ onto management practices. According to
Kahneman, fast thinking deals with automatic cognitive functions, e.g. brushing your teeth, activities
that require little or insignificant/automatic mental effort. The slow process is more deliberative and
reflective, and requires greater effort to perform.

Kahneman states that a person needs to develop his fast system so that he can do other
“slow” thinking work. Service and Gallagher point out the synergism of both systems because it is
only when automaticity and effortless functioning is developed that the slower system can perform
optimally. Applying this theory, Service and Gallagher imparts the belief that by setting in place the
fast system, a person is able to expend energy on the more effortful slow thinking activities.

The authors’ view is not extremely revolutionary as it is insightful and counterintuitive.

According to them, adopting a mindset that enables one to get the small and even ‘simple’ details
right is what would set him onto the path of achieving big goals. In other words, getting the fast
thinking on track, enables the person to spend more time on the more effortful system of functioning.
By developing small rungs in the scaffold, the bigger goal is reached. These actually appliy to
practically all areas of personnel management.

2) Practicability and Doability

Service and Gawain catch one’s attention by going the opposite of the present-day common
practice , i.e., GO BIG to attain big dreams. But these two raised important flags that caused some
job centers in UK to pause, re-think their operations which eventually helped them attain huge gains.

Big Dreams? Think Small

Planas-Aguilar
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Actual steps presented in most of Service and Gallagher’s cases were doable, practical,
realistic and grounded on experimentation. The importance of pilot testing and evaluation is
considered invariable. The authors recommend continuous EVIDENCE-BASED innovation, which,
even if applied incrementally, would create a big impact in the long run.

SPECIFIC CONNECTIONS WITH THE AREAS OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

Area of Personnel Management: Recruitment, Hiring and Selection

Concept Introduced/Presented Relevance (to XARIS THEOS)
1. Handbook, Forms Vs. Personal Engagement
 Service and Gallagher pointed out that 
job/work matching is more effective if this
is done by interviewing the applicant and
looking into the background of the applicant
particularly his goal, family and work life,
instead of relying on countless forms and
documents.
The School has never limited itself to mere
documents as the basis for selection. Teaching
demo and interview have always been part of the
hiring process. However, this pect be further
fine tuned to include interview questions that
focus on goals and plans on how to achieve
such goals.

2. Junior Staff Contribution  Junior teachers will be requested to join in the

 A vignette mentioned the strategy of a teaching demo and observe the panel interview,
recruitment officer to involve junior staff in and individual written feedback will also be
the observation/interview process. Each extracted thereafter.
one was then requested to give their
comments online, individually, separately.
The results gave the recruiter another
perspective of the prospective workers
potential as a member of a team and not
just a subordinate of a superior/supervisor.

Area of Personnel Management: Personnel Development

Concept Introduced/Presented Relevance (to XARIS THEOS)
1. Clear Personal Goals and Directions
The book emphasized the need to have clear personal Teachers and staff must be
goals, and path to achieve these. They mentioned a deadline encouraged to design their own
to achieve such goal. personal directions and how these can
2. Goal-Setting intersect with the School’s own goals
Goal setting is crucial in planning one’s professional so that both can benefit and grow from
Development. Before one embarks on what trainings to join, the symbiotic function/relationship.
or
Big Dreams? Think Small
Planas-Aguilar
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seminars to attend, the person must be clear on what
he/she wants to achieve or where he/she wants to go.
Enabling a worker to have a clear picture of his/her
direction is already reaching 25% of the development
program..
The key ideas to remember for goal-setting are:
3. Choose the right goal.
4. Focus on a single, set a clear target and deadline
5. Break the goal down into manageable steps (think
small aspect)
Nudge Others, Nudge Oneself
Nudging (or gentle pushing) is done either directly on Self-awareness and knowledge is a
the workers, or by providing the tools that enable the crucial step in linking them to the right
latter to self-nudge. training/course.

More than providing actual trainings

and seminars to attend is the book’s
emphasis to empower and equip the
individual to self-motivate/self-propel/self-
direct towards his goals. Guidance on
these may be given by a small group of co-

Area of Personnel Management: Monitoring and Performance Evaluation
Concept Introduced/Presented
1. Feedback
 Service and Gallagher did not write a
checklist of do’s and don’ts. Rather they
introduced key ideas that utilizes their basic
premise of ‘thinking small’ to reach ‘big goals.’
 Essential to monitoring of the
workers’ performance is the implementation of
feedback. Service and Gallagher cite a case
where physicians in England were given
feedback on their prescription practice
compared with that of others in order to reduce
/ manage pharmacologic treatment. Both
authors reiterate feedback as a tool for
achieving goals.
 They identify three rules for effective
feedback:
 Marking one’s performance vis-à-vis
Goal
 Making feedback timely, actionable and
focused on effort.
 Comparing performance with others.
Service and Gallagher add a finding that when a
person is given feedback on how others
(percentage of a population) react or perform,
this affects his behavior.
2. Commitment Strategy to Reach Goals
Aside from goal setting, both authors
recommend commitment strategies:
 Make the commitment public and write this
down.
 Appoint a commitment referee.
Area of Personnel Management: Personnel Recognition and Reward System
Concept Introduced/Presented
Specific concepts were presented in the area of reward
system. These are:
1. Link the reward system with the commitment
strategies.
2. Rewards must be meaningful, and there must be
something at stake for them.
workers with an experienced expert to
facilitate the activity. There is also a need
to determine manageable steps, the “think
small’ aspect needed to reach the goal.
Relevance (to XARIS THEOS)
Again, Service and Gallagher uses goal-setting as
a major component in upgrading quality of service.
Knowing and , setting important goals that would
benefit the worker and the organization could be a
jump-off point to identify points of monitoring. This
should supplement the ongoing monitoring system
followed in the For example, a teacher aiming to be
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an expert in teaching reading skills, can do so by
first learning and testing various techniques
pertaining to this as her goal, and she, with the help
of a mentor or a mentoring team, can develop a
scaffold to reach this goal.
 The report mentioned by Service and
Gallagher that comparing a person’s performance
with the percentage of a population affects the
behavior of the said person is a helpful tool to spur
the teacher to improve on the quality of his/her
work. However, caution is included here because
this author believes that comparison must be based
on 1) performance or output; 2) the person’s
standing in relation to a population to maintain
professional perspective; 3) NEVER between two
workers.
This can be adapted by requiring teachers to write
down their commitment to achieve their goals and
the steps they have set out to do, and to share what
they have written down with their co-teachers.
Accountability, i.e., a commitment referee system, is
established. Co-teacher or teacher-partner can be
the commitment referee.
Relevance (to XARIS THEOS)
Most of the recommendations of Service
and Gallagher in this area are highly
applicable.
  There must be a direct link between the reward and the
overarching goal. In other words the reward has a
bearing in your attainment of the goal to make the
The most interesting point they raised is
to attach behavior theory of loss
aversion with the rewards system, and
to take note of possible backfire results.
Big Dreams? Think Small
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Page 5/6

 system effective. For example, if one attains better the Where rewards are concerned, there
sub-goal of better skills in teaching reading, his/her must be continuous application of
reward would be a ticket to a play that also enhances monitoring, feedback, personnel
the skill. development and upliftment.
 The reward must be meaningful, .i.e., it must be a
source of motivation.
 Giving and earning the reward must be binding. This can
be done with a commitment referee or accountability
partner to keep track of attaining the goal.
 There must be something at stake for the personnel.
Service and Gallagher mention the concept of “loss
aversion.” Most people are less inclined to lose what
they value than to gain something of equivalent measure
which they do not have. This means putting something a
person is likely to lose as a part of the reward system is
a powerful motivator.
3. Use small rewards to build good habits
4. Beware of backfire results

Area of Personnel Management: Conflict Management

The book does not provide explicit concepts for managing conflict although the central theme
they introduced, i.e., think small to achieve big goals can be used to handle conflict in the
organization. Thus, using the principle learned from this book, a brief program is developed herewith:
Goal: To address and resolve conflict in the organization.
Thinking small, the steps can be as follows:
Preventive Measures—
1. Let teachers accept and appreciate differences in each one in terms of character, style
and opinion. Group dynamics and teambuilding exercises can be used for discovering co-
teachers’ qualities.
2. Encourage transparency and openness of expression by through leadership modeling.

Resolving Measures
Staff vs. Staff (Personal Grievances)
Allow a private but open, guided forum with the two conflicting personnel setting the
maintenance of a fluid and amicable work relationship as a goal.

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Staff vs. Organization (Policy Issues)

First, the staff raises the issue with the Directress, . If this is unresolved, the staff
then presents the issue to a Resolution Committee, who will in turn represent him/her before
the Board. Finally, if the staff deems it necessary, he/she may raise it finally with the Board.
All parties must agree, prior to the meeting with the board, to exert all effort to resolve the
issue with finality at this level.
- nf -
 October 11, 2019

Dr. Dixon Yasay

XAVIER UNIVERSITY
Cagayan de Oro City

Sir:

I just want to say thank you for a most enjoyable class . I learned a lot without having to
regurgitate the theories we had been overstuffed with at the lower levels. Thank you for not
subjecting us to another round of that. It was pure serendipity that just by making us chew on the
realistic, current practices, pushing us to upscale our analysis, you have actually elevated our
appreciation of Ph D classes. By capitalizing on self-learning through our own readings, you have
made the course more palatable for our overfed yet vacuous minds, enabling the concepts to
crystalize and be fused into our practice. Most importantly, you gave the “PhD” label dignity and
honor in terms of content and approach. I really appreciated your style.

I will always look forward to your talks, Sir.

More power and success to you, Doc. God bless, po.

Judith Aguilar