by Mandy Green, Busy Coach
I know you’ve probably heard about the 80 /20 Rule or the Pareto Principle a thousand times.
Chances are, if you’re like 98% of the other college coaches out there… you’re not using it well.
What you need to do is turn 80 / 20 into a Mental Model…or an automatic procedure you run your decisions through.
The Pareto principle states there’s an imbalance between input and output in pretty much anything you do.
It’s not you, them, or me…
80 / 20 is a Universal Principal.
The vast majority of effort will have little bearing on results… while a small amount of your effort will create the majority of impact.
Worded differently you and your team, program, or recruiting results will come from a remarkably small amount of activity.
What’s the solution?
I’ll give you my 5 Steps:
- Adopt 80 / 20 as a mental model you run your mind through consistently (does this task fall into the ‘80’ or the ‘20’?)
- Identify the most productive 20% and hyper-focus on those activities.
- *Once you’ve identified the 20% (sounds much easier than it is) …. put a magnifying glass over the 20%… Identify the 20% within the 20%… then the 20% within that 20% then the 20% within that 20% again.
- You’ll subsequently find 1% of your input… will provide 50% of your output. *The magic lies in identifying the 1% activity.
- Find ways to improve the 80% that are less productive.
I want to emphasize #4… it states that 1% of activity represents 50% of the result.
Do you and your staff have the patience and focus to find the 20%…. and then pour gasoline on the results by finding the magical 1%?
Tim Ferriss has a pretty famous example where he used to do sales calls at 8 – 9 am then again at 4– 5 pm when the gatekeeper wasn’t there.
He outsold the guys / gals who were putting in 50-hour weeks calling mostly between 9 am and 4 pm.
Focus on pouring gasoline the 20%…
Not eliminating the 80%.
Some shortcuts I’ve identified over the years:
∙ Take notice of and expand exceptional performance rather than trying to increase the overall average.
∙ Achieve excellence in a few things rather than becoming capable in a number of areas.
∙ Outsource projects classified as ‘non-productive’ so you can focus on critical output tasks.
∙ Do things you are good at and outsource things you are not good at.
∙ Become hyper-aware of 80 / 20 tendencies.
∙ Finding the magical 1% is VERY difficult… but VERY rewarding.
Want help finding your 20% and 1%? Email Mandy Green at mandy@busy.coach to set up a strategy call with her.