If my three children hear me talking about the 80/20 Rule one more time at the dinner table, I may be permanently expelled from dinner. Since I learned about and started using the 80/20 Rule, a nickname for The Pareto Principle, I have been able to accomplish so much in my career and life. In fact, I was at lunch with one of our instructors just yesterday, and she asked me, “Anthony, how do you do so much?” My response, The 80/20 Rule.
In this post, I will define the 80/20 Rule in case you aren’t familiar with it, but then talk mostly about how it can be applied in learning and development for maximum effect.
In the early 1900s, Italian mathematician Vilfredo Pareto discovered that the same ratio appeared in many of his studies, for example:
- 20% of people in the United Kingdom possessed 80% of the wealth
- 20% of Italians owned 80% of the land in Italy
- 20% of his vegetable garden yielded 80% of the produce
He then developed the Pareto Principle, which suggests that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. Another way to think about this is, 80% of the success in your career comes from 20% of your efforts. Think about that statement for a minute. It’s like you now have a crystal ball that is telling you that only 20% of the actions you take in the future will generate 80% of the success. What if you did more of those 20% tasks?
If you are having trouble visualizing this, here are two examples:
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