When we think of domino, we might imagine a line of hundreds or thousands of domino pieces set up in careful sequence. In domino shows, players compete to build a spectacular domino effect or reaction before an audience of fans. These impressive displays demonstrate the power of a small nudge to set in motion a chain of events that leads to a spectacular ending.
Domino is also the name of a type of business strategy that can be applied to organizations and their leaders. The goal of this strategy is to make it easy for people to do the right things, so they will naturally follow through on their commitments and be more productive in their daily work. While some businesses use domino to promote specific products or services, others apply the principle more broadly to help employees and managers be more effective in their jobs.
What are the key aspects of the Domino Strategy?
The first step is to identify the critical tasks that must be completed to achieve a particular outcome. Once those are determined, the next step is to develop a plan for accomplishing each one of them, which should include a timeline and key performance indicators (KPIs) to help measure progress and keep everyone on track. Once the plan is in place, the final step is to provide the necessary support and resources.
This is similar to the way a coach supports an athlete or team. A coach provides the encouragement and guidance to keep everyone on track and focused on the task at hand. A good leader will do the same for his or her teams.
There are many different types of domino games, but they all share the same basic structure. Each domino has a number of pips that indicate its value in the game. The most common set contains 28 dominoes. Depending on the game, additional dominoes may be needed to fill out the full board and play to the end.
Dominos are commonly made from bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl), ivory, or a dark hardwood such as ebony. The pips are usually inlaid or painted with black or white. In addition to being more durable than plastic, natural materials have a higher-quality look and feel to them.
While most of us are familiar with the domino effect from seeing videos of long chains of toppling dominoes, physicists have shown that a single domino has much more potential energy than we might expect. In a video, University of Toronto professor Stephen Morris sets up 13 dominoes that are roughly 1.5 times larger than the previous one.
For writers, the domino effect can be a helpful way to check that your scenes logically connect and advance your story. If your last scene isn’t a logical extension of the scene before it, or doesn’t shift the character’s emotional state as indicated by the scenes before it, something is likely amiss. You can use tools such as outlines or Scrivener to help you create an effective plot ahead of time, or you can be a “pantser” and write each scene as it comes to you, but be sure to take the time to check that your scenes are falling into place properly.