Hope and the 80%

Today was the Capital 10k in Austin. I'm not sure if the 10k refers to the distance or the number of people in the event because both are true. It was a pretty awesome sight. The starting line ran back at least a quarter mile. People started rolling in around 745am and kept coming until after the start at 9am. I made a promise to shell that I'd be home by 10 so we could make it to church by 11, so rather than run with the crowd, I got there at 7am, ran the 10k course, then added on another 2 miles to round out my Sunday workout. By the time I finished my workout, the race was about to begin and, for the first time in quite a while, I had the opportunity to watch a race begin from the outside looking in.

Watching the masses of people congregate at the start line is always a sight to see. There are so many twists and turns and so many thin threads intertwined just for people to get there, it's a wonder anyone ever makes it at all. The level of excitement in this race wasn't as high as an IM or even the Austin Marathon, but there was a sense of community in this race that wasn't in the other two. Having some time to reflect on this today, I think it's another example of how people have figured out how to break the 80/20 rule.

If you've never heard of the 80/20 before, it simply says that within any population of people, 20% of the population will be responsible for generating 80% of the output. It's not my idea. It's not even something I had heard of up until a couple years ago, but it is, never-the-less, a fact. In America today, the 80/20 split is working just as it always has...and will barring Obama & big blue going Evita on us. Look around in your office, your church, your family, etc...the 80/20 rule is working everywhere. There are performers and clock punchers. There's nothing wrong being in either group. We all choose to which group to belong. It is what it is.

Occasionally, some bright person will realize that they'd rather move their agenda on sooner than later and find a way to spur the 80% to action. The formula is pretty straight forward, J Paul Getty said it this way, "I'd rather have 1% of 100 men's effort than 100% of my own." How does one accomplish this? Someone in the 20% lower's their standard so the 80% can have some hope of catching up.

Take an sales force for example. Given 10 salesmen, 1 will be the clear superstar, 1-2 will be better than average, 3-4 will be strictly average and 3-4 will pray they have a job next month. That's a normal distribution and normally, what most managers would do is remind everyone of how great the top couple salesmen are and use that indirect pressure and guilt to try and drive the rest of the staff to do better. That never works. The reason is simple: belief. It's not for lack of desire, or even talent, that the 80% are in the 80%. I'd argue most times, they just don't believe they can be anything other than that. Hope deferred makes the heart sick and soon they just give up and shut down the extra activity that, over time, would propel them to the top. Pitty.

The successful sales manager, however, realizes that his job is to foster belief, not sales. When the staff believes they can sell more, their activity level increases and inevitably they will sell more. If you're a numbers person, consider this:

2 salesmen moving 5 units a week and 4 moving 1 unit a week and 4 moving none = 14

vs.

2 salesmen moving 5 units a week and 8 moving 2 = 26 units

This isn't a massive increase in activity. In most cases, it's just a matter of the 80% people doing an extra 10% of work with the right expectation and yielding significantly better results. In the above example, simply focusing on building the belief of the 80% that they could move 2 units rather than pointing out how the 20% could move 5 resulted in nearly doubling the company's bottom line.

Why am I talking about this? It's because that's what jumped out at me today. The Austin Marathon and Cap 10k are both local races. The marathon drew a few thousand local participants for a grueling event which earns you a medal, t-shirt, and pics. The 10k drew 18 thousand local participants for a manageable 10k run OR walk. All participants got a t-shirt, pics, and bunch of warm fuzzies. Which race was more effective at engaging the community? Here's a hint, a good portion of those marathon participants were part of the 10k as well.

Top performers are going to perform because that's what they do. The cost and effort don't really matter to them. Winners find a way to win. The masses, however need something that they can reach out and touch. For most people, 13.1 miles is simply too much to believe they can do. 6 miles, walking as much of it as need be, however is entirely doable. The average New Yorkers walks 5 miles a day. Surely a Texan can walk/job 6 miles. There's belief there. It's a goal that people believe they can achieve, so more are willing to try.

What I learned from this morning was that big goals are not accomplished by herculean efforts of the elite, but rather by a bunch of small contributions by the majority of people. I sincerely hope you're a dreamer like me. If so, then this is good news. Your dreams just got a lot closer because they depend less on your own effort and more on your ability to get small amounts of effort from a lot of people. I'd argue that the best way to do that is to surround yourself with people who are going anywhere near where you're going and become the biggest blessing in their lives helping them get there.

Today was a long day, no doubt. It was a good day. I learned something about myself and about the world around me. I believe it's these small insights that change the way we look at and function in the world that allow us to be better servants and therein leaders. It's pretty rare that I ever really feel like I've got it right at the end of the day. Today, however, I really feel like I figured something out. Father, did I make you smile?