Why Small Steps Matter in the Long Journey: Unpacking the Meaning of Micro-Improvement

When I was barely in my 5th grade, one Sunday morning, I was trailing behind my mother as she dusted a bookshelf. There, I saw the Oxford Dictionary, the thickest of all the books stacked on the shelf. It grabbed my attention, and immediately, I asked my mother to hand it to me. 

She showed some resistance initially and then  gave it to me. I could barely hold it; it was so heavy. I placed it on the floor and started flipping through it. When it made no sense, I asked my mother, “What is this book?” She replied, “It has all the English words in the world. If you want to be good at English, you need to remember them all.” As a native Hindi speaker and a kid at that time, I thought I would never be good at English because I could never learn even twenty percent of it. 

Here I am today, writing in English.

How did this happen? 

This gradual process of starting something small and reaching its pinnacle often occurs in nature. Trees begin their journey with tiny saplings, and butterflies are caterpillars in the beginning. 

We even witness some examples that strengthen our belief in how small changes over a long time make a big impact. Virat Kohli didn’t become a world-class cricketer in his first match; it took years of making small changes and making marginal adjustments in his approach to reach where he is now.

Similarly, I didn’t have to learn all the words in the Oxford Dictionary at once in grade 5th. It was a gradual process that took years of reading small stories, writing, listening, and practicing. Over time, those small, consistent efforts improved my vocabulary. Where I once thought I couldn’t even remember 20% of the words, now I probably refer to the dictionary for just 20% of them.

If this is how nature works and how we transform, why don’t we apply this gradual, structured approach when addressing problems as big as 200 million children who do not have access to quality education in India?

To solve a problem of this scale and complexity, what we need here is that we must not look for immediate results. 

The PROBLEM with the immediate result is that it leaves many people to think…

If I can’t have it now, I don’t want it at all. 

It will take too long, so why bother? 

It’s too much work, so forget it. 

The problem with the ‘immediate result’  attitude is that it sells a lot of ideas and a lot of people short. When results seem too far in the future — people give up on trying to get there and leave a lot of missed opportunities on the side of the road.

This is where I want you to know the “Micro-Improvement” approach. Any approach that makes the improvement process easy, simple, and achievable is a “micro-improvement” approach.

Every time I apply this approach, it works. 

 

I remember, during my graduation, my best friend’s younger brother was in grade 9th and struggling with English. He asked me for help, and when I first talked to the shy and introverted kid, he believed that improving his English was impossible.

Instead of attempting drastic measures, I decided to break down the outcomes into simple and achievable tasks, for which I didn’t had a term back then. It was at Mantra4Change that I understood that this is called “the micro-improvement approach.” We started with small, manageable changes:

 

First, I encouraged him to read a short English story daily, no matter how challenging it felt. Next, we incorporated a 10-minute creative writing exercise into his daily routine.

 

I made slight adjustments to his study habits, such as reading English stories, watching English movies with subtitles, and playing language-based games. 

 

These small changes didn’t seem like much individually, but they began to add up over time. I noticed his vocabulary expanding, his confidence in reading improving, and his writing becoming more coherent. All this happened without him feeling overwhelmed by the process.

 

How can we apply micro-improvements to tackle the challenge of millions of children lacking access to quality education? Implementing small, sustainable changes—such as reading campaigns, parent-teacher engagement, innovative pedagogy, and continuous training of school leaders—can create a cumulative impact. The path to educational transformation is often paved with small, deliberate steps – Micro-Improvements.  Are we ready to take them?