When Gregor Mendel started to look at the legumes in his garden and ask himself what they told him about the nature of genetics, a new scientific discipline was born. He has inadvertently shaped the way in which the last century or so has developed, to the point where we now have a fully mapped human genome and the genetic codes for many species of animal. We have just reached the point at which we can synthesise genes, actually create them in the lab!
I wonder if, when looking at his legumes in his garden Joseph Juran was aware that his musings on peas, much like Mendel’s would end with something ground-breaking. In Jurans case it was in the field of economics and is known as the Pareto Principle. This principle is loosely termed the ’80% 20%’ principle and states that in many cases the 20% is directly attributable to 80% returns.
Let me break away for just one moment to look at some examples:
In business.
80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers
80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers
80% of your profits come from 20% of the time you spend
80% of your sales come from 20% of your products
80% of your sales are made by 20% of your sales staff
In other areas.
In land registries it is common for 20% of the populate to own 80% of the land
It is reasonable in Health and Safety to assume that 20% of incidences will create 80% of recorded injuries
In ICT it is likely to be the case that fixing 20% of bugs will reduce complaints by 80%
This principle can be used to develop both yourself and your team, let us begin with your personal life first:
If you attribute the Pareto Principle to the sum of yourself, it is clear what this suggests, that there is 80% superfluous ‘stuff’ that contributes very little to who and how you are as a person. Whilst this sounds trite and gimmicky when put like this, consider the same principle in different language. Replace the 80% and the 20% with these sets of words in turn and see if this makes the concept more real.
Obligation vs Freedom, how much of your daily life is taken up with obligated tasks, conversations and other actions compared to the freedom you genuinely enjoy?
Effort vs Reward, how much of your day do you get a sense of reward out of, compared to the efforts you put in?
Relaxation vs action, how much time do you actually get to enjoy the fruits of your actions?
These are typical oxymoronic pairings that we encounter throughout our daily lives, but which percentage do you attribute to which? There are certain areas that are definitely the wrong way around for me. Let me give an example that should highlight the whole issue; I spend a lot of time in my garden, I love to be outdoors, but the effort vs reward ratio is way off, I spend all winter clearing, all spring planting, all autumn harvesting vegetables and fruit, and I get a small window in the summer when I can really appreciate the garden. In this scenario my relaxation vs action percentages are also 80% in favour of action.
But what happens if I look at the whole scenario in a different way? Maybe the fact that I love to be outdoors, and I find the work I do in the garden relaxing means actually the percentages are the right way around after all.
Or maybe I had it right the first time and I work way too hard for too little reward.
In one scenario I justify the percentages as they are, because I have analysed the situation and find that, for me, it is a balance I am comfortable about. But if I analyse the situation and I am not content, then this is the point at which I have to make a change. If this is the case, maybe I give up the vegetable plot and turn more of the garden into lawn, or maybe I cordon off an area and create a wildlife habitat. Maybe I create a patio and take up planting in pots, or just scrap the whole garden idea and build a drive for my car. The point is, if I am dissatisfied with the way things are there are limitless possibilities for change, but only once I have identified that there needs to be a change. This identification of something does two things, either it means you analyse it and are satisfied, in which case the net result is that you better appreciate what you have already got, achieved or succeeded in, or you are dissatisfied in which case you have just opened up a hitherto unknown opportunity to change, in which case your satisfaction with the situation will increase. The net result is that you win either way.
On to the team…
You may be wondering how this principle can help with Teambuilding or cohesive teamwork, the answer is that there is 20% of what you do that is responsible for 80% of your teams’ effectiveness. If you could only work out what that 20% could be…
If you list all the main jobs you do over a 6-week period and systematically delegate the responsibilities one at a time to other members of your team, you will fast whittle your list down to two sets of data;
A) responsibilities that you have delegated that had a noticeably detrimental effect on the team and
B) responsibilities that you are unable to delegate for some reason
These two sets of data represent the ’20%’ that is most responsible for your team’s success. Leave whatever you can delegate to the rest of your team without overloading them and get busy making the whittled down list as effective as possible. By maximising your 20% list your team will increase its effectiveness.
So, what do you do with the rest of the time you now have, some 80% more of it if all has gone to plan? The answer is that you do two things, firstly, you create a strong vision for the future for your team, and importantly, share this with them! Secondly it gives you a chance to spend time assuring the personal touch, giving time to your teams’ ideas and make sure they grow and develop to increase future successes and to ensure future growth is possible with the best team you can take forward with you.
Shevek Pring 