Are You Getting the 80/20 Rule Right

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The 80/20 Rule states that the minority causes lead to the majority of results. 

Most business transformation projects are pressured early on to get results and wind up putting the wrong thing at the head of the 80/20 Rule. 

There is one step to long-term success that's important is often underrated.

To flip the odds of having a successful digital or business transformation project in your favor, let's look at the 80/20 Rule. It's also known as the Pareto Principle. With it, we'll see how most businesses, when it comes to transformation, get their priorities backward. 

Many business transformation projects, eager for change, visible results, and unaware or unburdened by preparing for complexity, spend 20% of the time quickly laying the groundwork of the project before getting started.

What do they miss out on by jumping in head first into execution?

• Analyzing and preparing to implement a winning strategy 

• Finding and getting the right people on the team

• Improving and organizing your processes for growth

• Thoughtfully selecting the best fit tech solutions according to your requirements

If these pieces are done well, only 20% of the time must be spent executing the transformation. With the top-class groundwork, the change will be much smoother sailing. 

Startups with early-stage success got to where they are because their bias towards action gained them a competitive edge through their responsiveness to the market and agility to innovation. 

But what you got you where you are may not get you where you need to go next.

The path to success for a digital transformation project looks a little different.

An exceptionally run digital transformation project will invite you to critically examine two things.

First, what's working great for your business now, in its current state? 

Second, what will your business need to have working to be successful in its future state? 

You need to thoughtfully plan for and incorporate the answers into your business transformation project.

Going at a digital transformation with the same hustle-energy that helped you reach early startup success will likely result in extra costs and time. You'll wind up frustrated. 

But get the 80/20 Rule right in your digital transformation project by laying great groundwork down to become change-ready first, and you'll spare yourself and your team a lot of headaches.

"The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes (the "vital few").[1] Other names for this principle are the 80/20 rule, the law of the vital few, or the principle of factor sparsity.[2][3"

To get great results from your digital transformation project, you must ensure you are as prepared

for change as possible. That's the 20% that will profoundly impact your success and results. 

Lay the groundwork down first, and do it right. 

Then you'll avoid the common mistakes that cause most business transformation projects to fail. 

Now it's your turn. 

What areas of your business most urgently need to change to help you scale?

How ready are you and your team for the changes?

Where would you get started first?

Are you Taking Your Business to the Next Level? You may enjoy this resource.

The article is part of an original content series jointly authored by Jamie Jenkins ♾️, Business Growth & Operations Strategist at Jamie Jenkins Consulting LLC, and David Verneuille, CEO of BlackBadger Enterprises and is not authorized for reproduction or reuse online or elsewhere without explicit consent by the authors.