Chances are, if you're in the business world, you've bumped into the 80/20 principle. It's often credited to economist Vilfredo Pareto, and this attribution is sometimes spot-on.
You might think you've got it down from a book or planning to teach your team, but here's where it gets tricky.
The principle is complex and challenging to pinpoint in specific scenarios. It's easily overgeneralized - thrown around as a quick-fix phrase, "Just do the 80/20 thing," right?
But when misapplied, it only sometimes boosts time, energy, or profits.
Plus, it's only on everyone's radar, occasionally popping up sporadically in meetings or on the production floor.
The real challenge? Resistance to change. When the 80/20 is spot-on, it demands a significant shift in focus or strategy, and that's tough for many. Another hurdle is data analysis skills. To nail the 80/20, you need to be sharp at spotting patterns and making connections - not everyone's cup of tea.
But here's the thing: Is the 80/20 principle truly out of reach, or is it just waiting for us to grasp it right?
Is it out of our grasp?
It is for most.
Why?
Because we fail to acknowledge what we already know, anytime you have been talked to, or you talked to your employees, the principle was introduced to you as 80/20.
You’ve probably heard this but go with me for a moment. Indulge me.
Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian economist credited with formulating the 80/20 principle, observed that approximately 80% of Italy's wealth was owned by 20% of the population.
This observation led to the broader principle, stating that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of the causes in many different contexts.
Pareto's principle has been widely applied across various fields, suggesting that a small proportion of inputs or efforts often lead to a large portion of results or rewards.
You skipped it, didn’t you?
You heard the adults speak in your head.
From the cartoon peanuts Wah Wa wa Wah Wa Wah wa Wa.
That’s not where you or your people are coming from. You are coming from the 80, not the 20.
Let’s flip it on its head. Call it the Twenty-80 mindset. People, in general, at their core, believe that 80% of work is responsible for 20% of the results.
They would be wrong. But this is where everyone starts; as I stated earlier, change is challenging.
Trying to adapt to a new paradigm shift is exhausting. This is where we need to start. Start with where you or your people are.
Start with the minutiae, the pile of undone work, the overstock of inventory, the shit, the 80% that is impacting your or their day.
The 80/20 principle is broken.
The twenty-80 mentality isn’t mainstream. No one I know of teaches it this way again because conventional wisdom can’t see past famous writers, philosophers, or economists.
It’s not a principle, is it?
How would a 20/80 principle work? It would be the inverse of the 80/20 principle, correct?
Does this sound familiar?
Kevin is a good worker. He shows up on time, does his job well, and picks up shifts when possible.
Kevin has worked for the company for over a decade and is liked by most of the other members of the team. He just finished the 80/20 training the company provided him.
Kevin busts butt all day, palletizing some product to get out the door today because he was told in his morning meeting, “IT HAS TO GO TODAY.”
Kevin is exhausted and wants to finish this, so he snaps at the manager a little. The manager snaps back or gives some unneeded flippant comment. Productivity and Efficiency: Kevin is not rewarded for his input. He is being punished for his productivity and efficiency.
Kevin realized his direct manager didn’t tell him the whole story of the items that needed to go today. He also feels reprimanded for going above and beyond his regular duties. That’s not fair or just.
Kevin sees management didn’t apply 80/20 as his training has shown him, and guess what?
Kevin will likely never change because he lives in the twenty/80 mindset his managers just created for him. Kevin understood the 80/20 principle loud and clear.
Still, his leadership dropped the ball, and unbeknownst to them, Kevin will never change, but he will tell all his buddies tomorrow about how management can’t even follow their own 80/20 training.
Sound familiar?
This is why the 80/20 principle is broken. Most people understand it as the twenty-80 mindset without even knowing it.
I’ve watched it happen repeatedly in three different industries in three separate implementations and scenarios.
What Kevin understands and will always understand is the twenty-80 principle.
20% of any new training will cause 80% of his problems. The 80/20 principle is now broken in his mind, and the twenty-80 mentality is likely fixed for life.
The shipping manager was right. It costs money if they don’t fill the truck. The second shift manager was also right to investigate why Kevin took so long.
It doesn't matter who was right. The problem is you now have a respected employee, Kevin, who will most likely work for you until retirement, and he will never advocate for the 80/20 principle.
He will sit in the back, make snide comments, and make everyone laugh during each training session from now on.
Ask someone, anyone, about something they perceive as an essential job.
I’ll use my middle child as an example.
Rylee's job is to empty the garbage every day. She uses two new garbage sacks daily—one for the kitchen and the second to open the rest of the house.
If I ask her who gets the garbage done around our house? What’s she going to say?
“Me,” correct?
She does all the work, right?
She gets the new bags, walks around and collects the trash, takes the garbage out, and takes the cans to the curb each week.
She did at least 80% of the work to get the 20% of the results. The garbage truck comes once a week and removes the trash from the can. He completes the remaining 20%.
From her perspective. She does most of the work, and our sanitation worker does 20%.
Are you starting to see why people struggle to see 80/20?
We are wired to only see what we are doing. What our responsibility our circle of influence our tasks.
That’s it! We don’t look at the big picture, do we?
Ya, Rylee is hardly doing anything compared to all that infrastructure surrounding her to enable her to do her little garbage job.
I view Rylee’s job as tiny, minor, or insignificant, just like the shipping manager and the second shift manager from before.
What if she stops doing the garbage collection? She’s not an employee, so I can’t fire her.
That's why you or your employees can’t or won’t ever understand the 80/20 principle: people only see their job.
Rylee’s job is taking out the garbage every day. My job is to not see her job as insignificant because she is not. I don’t want to take the trash out.
Don’t you feel the same frustration when explaining the 80/20 to your team?
You may get that feeling of anger or irritation I do as a dad. I want to scream JUST DO THE GARBAGES!
It won’t work. You'll hold this grand training or have held, spend hours on slides and PowerPoint, and maybe even buy your team lunch, and guess what? It’s complicated, so what do they do?
They will, or you will abandon the method.
"There are people who want to achieve, and then there are sane people" and "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself"-Richard Koch's
That goes both ways, Richard. If I am a reasonable man and just accept the status quo, my world and team members will keep doing the status quo. That won’t work, will it?
What if I’m unreasonable and want my team to see it my way or the highway mentality? That won’t work either.
How do I become an unreasonable man within reason?
When you teach or have been taught the 80/20 principle, you or the teacher most likely came at it from the time-saving perspective, the Lean Management tool, the cost-savings accounting perspective, or the Wah wa wa wah perspective.
STOP! Don’t do it.
K.I.S.S. it, right? Keep it simple, stupid.
"The way to create something great is to create something simple" and "Innovation is the name of the game" -Richard Koch's
Start with where you and your team members are. Realize you and them are mostly likely in the twenty-80 mindset.
You both feel that your job is the most important, and it’s everyone else that makes it hard, not you.
This isn’t true, but it’s how you feel.
Approach it from this angle rather than teaching the 80/20 principle with the Wah Wa wa Wah Wa Wah wa Wa slide show, "new” lean tool, or whatever pyramid multilevel third-party consulting firm your company has hired or will hire.
What if I could give you a tool to reduce stress, give you more time back in your day, and make you stand out from the crowd—bringing you praise and recognition for years?
Would you be opposed to knowing the secret? No?
Ok, but this is an Elite club.
This is a red or blue pill moment. Like Morpheus offering Neo the opportunity to leave the matrix and break his paradigm, knowing this information will break your perspective on everything in life.
There is no going back.
Are you still interested?
Ok, let’s begin. But here’s the catch: you can’t use this on someone else's tasks. It can only be used on your tasks.
You will need the following:
Now, come up with a mundane task you dislike doing.
It should fall into one of three categories:
Then, on a sticky note, start at the beginning of the task and write down every little job to complete the whole.
Place the notes in order on the whiteboard or glass window.
Now, which category can you attack today? It takes too long? Great!
Which task(s) can you eliminate, automate, or delegate?
Take making a peanut butter sandwich, for instance. Suppose I reduce the time to clean up or find a knife.
I could cut a hole in the top of the peanut butter lid precisely the size of the knife and leave it in the jar, thus eliminating the need to get out a knife, use it, and then clean it off.
I can now just leave the knife in the jar and have a handy lid to wipe off the excess peanut butter from the blade inside the jar.
Saving me time and irritation. Save the lid for the next jar.
I insert the knife backward from the bottom of the lid and clean off the knife on the lid. Then screw the lid on and place the knife back in the jar through the top of the lid.
Bam! I just removed the majority of my irritation when making a sandwich.
Have you ever tried to get peanut butter off a knife in a hurry?
I just 80/20’ed my sandwich making.
Now, take a picture of the Post-it notes and then take down the notes in order and place them in a folder for the next time you need to reduce your process.
I even save the sticky note with the knife on it for reference to remember what I’ve already done so that even if I backslide a little in my process, I can pick up where I left off next time.
✔ The process is simple.
✔ It’s personalized
✔ It can only be applied to your tasks
✔ No need for a spreadsheet or data analyst
✔ It’s documented
✔ It has a save point to come back to
✔ It has room for continuous improvement
Use this method to teach, and your team will grasp the concept.
The 80/20 Principle, while a powerful tool in theory, often fails in practice due to a lack of proper understanding and application.
By flipping the principle to a Twenty-80 mindset, we can start where most people naturally are, acknowledging the disproportionate effort often required for minimal results.
The key is to simplify and personalize the application of this principle, making it accessible and applicable to individual tasks and responsibilities.
By doing so, we can transform this misunderstood concept into a practical, everyday tool for enhancing productivity and efficiency in personal and professional contexts.
This approach demystifies the 80/20 Principle, making it a tangible and effective strategy for anyone willing to reconsider and apply it innovatively.
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