We’ve all seen those domino constructions, where one domino is tipped ever-so-slightly, and then all the others fall in a beautiful, rhythmic cascade. In fact, there are even a number of domino shows where builders build amazing displays that showcase this phenomenon. And it’s a great metaphor for the power of small victories that can have a huge impact in our lives. Those small victories are what I call “domino actions.”

Dominoes are square tiles with an arrangement of dots, called pips, on one side and are blank or identically patterned on the other. They are sometimes referred to as a “pip” or “domino” game, although this term is usually reserved for games where the dominoes have been used to score points.

In a basic domino game, players start with a hand of dominoes that are shuffled and then draw for the lead. The player who draws the highest domino based on total pip count plays first, and then each other player takes turns playing their pieces until all of the players have finished their hands. The remaining unplayed dominoes are called the boneyard or stock, and the winning player receives a score equal to the number of dots left in his opponents’ hands minus the total number of his own unplayed dominoes.

The most common domino games are block-and-draw games where players play the dominoes so that the ends of adjacent pieces touch each other. The dominoes are then matched to the end of another domino (i.e., a pair of dominoes are considered a match if the exposed ends have the same total number of dots). When all pairs of dominoes are matched together in this way, each domino is then played at right angles to its previous piece until all of the players have completed their hand.

In 1979, Tom Monaghan was working on a marketing strategy to promote his new Domino’s Pizza chain. He was convinced that if he could deliver a pizza to a customer’s house within 30 minutes, it would create a strong brand image and drive sales. So he began experimenting with different delivery systems using a variety of vehicles and drivers.

Domino’s has become a global company and is known for its fast delivery service, but it also invests heavily in cutting edge technology to enable that faster, more efficient delivery. In fact, half of the employees at Domino’s headquarters work in software analytics. It’s a large part of what keeps Domino’s on the forefront of innovation for food delivery. It’s why we can now order a pizza via an app, on our smartwatch, or even with an Amazon Echo. And it’s why Admiral William H. McRaven advised University of Texas graduates in 2014 to make their beds every morning: “Doing the little things that add up can have a big impact. Take pride in the small victories that can help you achieve your biggest goals.” In the world of fiction, each scene is like a domino effect. Each domino, by itself, is insignificant, but put all of them together, and they naturally influence the scene that follows it. If your scene doesn’t make the next one stronger, something is missing.