Domino is a word that has several meanings, from the classic game to the business term for a chain reaction. It’s also a phrase that can describe an effect that is both positive and negative, from the way that one event influences another to how a small decision might affect your entire life.
The word “domino” has been around for centuries, appearing in English shortly after 1750 and in French a bit later. The word is thought to be derived from dominus, the Latin name for a leader or master, and it’s associated with a sense of control and an awareness of consequences.
The game of domino is an excellent example of a domino effect, with each little action leading to a cascade of reactions and results. A domino is a tile with dots or symbols on it, and players take turns rolling dice to see who goes first and then build a line of tiles on the table that can be knocked over by the others. There are many variations on the game, but most involve emptying a player’s hand while blocking opponents from play or scoring points by matching numbers on the tiles in winning players’ hands.
When Domino first appeared, it was a brand of pizza that was available only in a few locations. Its founder, David Brandon, saw that his company was not achieving its potential as a fast-food restaurant and began to make changes. For starters, he created employee training programs and worked with the local workforce to understand what was wrong with the business.
Another change that helped Domino grow was putting pizzerias in the right places. In the beginning, Domino emphasized putting stores near college campuses, where it could reach a student audience that was hungry for pizza and had time to wait for delivery. The strategy paid off and the chain soon grew to over 200 locations by 1978.
Domino’s newest product, Domino Data Science, is an open platform for data science that brings together all the tools and technology a modern data scientist needs to work in the cloud. It provides a central repository for code, data and results that is accessible from anywhere and allows collaboration on projects across teams. It can also help you trace the origin of a result back to the code and data that generated it, enabling better understanding and accountability.
When artist Jennifer Dukes Lee started making her bed each morning, it was just a small step that led to her establishing new habits that had a big impact on the way she cleaned and organized her home. This is a good example of a domino effect that not only created a shift in behavior, but a change in the identity-based beliefs she held about herself. As a result, she was able to establish other new habits that continued to grow in momentum. Then, over time, she was able to create a whole new identity based on these new behaviors and the actions that they inspired.