In the world of automation, it’s easy to chase big wins. Bold promises. Sweeping change. That’s what gets attention. It’s what gets budget sign-off and leadership interest. But it’s often not what actually works.
The truth is, the most effective automation efforts don’t always look dramatic. They rarely start with major overhauls or wholesale reinvention. They tend to start small. They start where pain is felt daily. And they keep going.
Progress that compounds
Incremental change doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s where real momentum lives.
Deliver one small win. Then another. Then another. Each builds trust. Each makes the next easier. That’s how momentum works – not as a sudden leap, but as a steady drumbeat that people can get behind.
One automation might only save five minutes a day. But if five people use it daily, that’s over eight hours a month. That time goes somewhere – often into better customer service, faster delivery, or just reducing stress. It’s not just about efficiency. It’s about impact.
And as you compound these changes, something else happens: patterns emerge. You begin to notice similarities between processes, recurring actions, and common bottlenecks. This creates opportunities to templatise, to reuse components, and to deliver faster with each step.
Why this matters more than ever
The biggest challenge with automation isn’t the tech. It’s people. Most teams can tolerate one big disruption, but if you keep asking for major changes, they’ll push back. Change fatigue is real. That’s why gradual, continuous improvement works better. It brings people along without overwhelming them.
You’re not replacing everything. You’re optimising piece by piece, using momentum as your biggest asset.
And perhaps most importantly, the environment evolves with you. As automation spreads, people naturally start thinking more critically about their workflows. They notice inefficiencies. They suggest improvements. It becomes cultural.
Avoid the trap of false starts
When companies go big early, they risk stalling later. Big bang rollouts sound great, until the edge cases show up. The context changes, complexity layers and compounds, and suddenly the whole thing loses steam.
Incremental change avoids this by staying adaptable. If something doesn’t work, you course-correct quickly. If something lands well, you double down.And because you’re not waiting for a huge launch day, value starts flowing early. Stakeholders see results. Confidence builds. And the next investment becomes easier to justify.
So what does this look like in practice?
Start with a single process that’s repetitive and well understood. Map it. Find the friction points. Build a simple automation to address them.
Then look for the next. And the next.
Make this a rhythm. Set a cadence – weekly reviews, monthly retros, quarterly plans. Keep the engine turning.
And while you do it, document the wins. Celebrate them. Use them to build buy-in. Small wins become case studies. Case studies become templates. Templates become leverage.
It’s not just a delivery model – it’s a mindset
This isn’t about lowering your ambition. It’s about raising your chances of success.
Automation projects that change everything overnight rarely deliver. But the ones that change a little every day? They reshape companies.
So forget the transformation narrative. Focus on traction. Keep things moving. Build a culture that rewards small wins and compounds progress. Because when done right, incremental change doesn’t feel slow. It feels inevitable.
