The Pareto Principle (also known as the 80-20 rule) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Yes, most of us know about the 80-20 rule and have probably gone as far as applying the principle to our every day working lives. In fact we can apply it to many a situation….. Business = 80% of business comes from 20% of clients, Management = 80% of work output comes from 20% of the team, Humour = 80% of laughs come from 20% of jokes told, and we could go on and on with examples.

At Engineering Education Australia we know that the 80-20 rule also applies to professional development. Yes, since 1989, we have discovered that 80% of the results from attending professional development come from 20% of the content……

So what does this mean?

Ok….. Ok…… You are probably thinking just as we did….. How about Enginering Education Australia professional development focus on delivering only the 20% that gives all the value? Actually, that is a good thought and if only it were that simple….. However, the unknown variable is that different people each have a different 20% that delivers them all the value.

What is the lesson in applying the 80-20 rule to your professinal development?

he next book you read, the next conversation you have with your colleague, or the next professional development course you attend…. Think to yourself….. What are the 2 in 10 ideas, thoughts, or learnings that are going to give me the result I am after. It might happen in the first sentence of the conversation, in the middle or even right at the end. Because we never know when we are going to get the 2 in 10 and just like a good fisherman we need to be patient and feel for bites. So how about looking past the 8 in 10 that is not going to help you, but rather focus on the 2 in 10 that will give you all the results.

Applying the 80-20 rule to professional development in this way will significantly increase your results by double or sometimes even triple. Of course there are other ways to improve even further, but we can save this for another conversation.

The Pareto Principle (or 80-20 Rule). Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population; he developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas.