FORWARD21: #15
FORWARD21 is a weekly newsletter with top, hand-picked forward thinking human and workplace advice, and resources for 21st-century executives, leaders, and change agents.
How to Use 80/20 to Unleash Powerful Results
I’ve been a longtime follower and student of Perry Marshall. Perry is one of the most sought-after consultants in the world. He is the author of some of the world’s most popular books on advertising, marketing, and sales including, Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, 80/20 Sales and Marketing, and many other books and articles.
You might think that Perry isn’t someone I would interview. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
Perry’s expertise goes well beyond sales and marketing and spans engineering, art, and psychology. He founded the $10 million Evolution 2.0 Prize to solve one of the leading mysteries in science. He is also the author of Evolution 2.0.
I never considered interviewing Perry or thought he would be interested in doing so until I received one of his newsletters. The newsletter talked about his interest in using marketing to shift the culture and his fascination with the following question:
How do you hold conversations that nobody wants to have because of political correctness or stupidity spasms or hidden agendas?
This idea was immediately relevant and spoke to me.
Shifting the culture and having bigger conversations that break down barriers are at the heart of why the Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplaces exists.
There’s a lot of valuable advice and insights to unpack in my interview with Perry, but there’s one particularly powerful idea I want to highlight:
80/20 is Fractal!
As you probably already know, a fractal is a pattern inside a pattern inside a pattern. These patterns run infinitely, recursively repeating.
The fractal nature of 80/20 means there’s an 80/20 inside every 80/20!
Perry was the first person to discover this powerful nature of 80/20. And once you see it, you can apply it in so many, many powerful ways.
Here’s one recommendation from Perry on how to apply this idea:
Let’s take a simple example of this idea. Checking your email or posting on social media might be worth $10 per hour of your time, but the return on coming up with a new marketing strategy or headline might be worth $10,000 per hour of your time!
I intentionally remind myself almost every day to spend more of my time doing the 1% or 5% activities.
The fractal nature of 80/20 is one of the most valuable ideas I learned from Perry that I apply in my work every day.
Here are a few of my favorite takeaways from the interview:
Key Takeaways
- Do an audition, not an interview.
- Help people learn how they best enlist other people’s cooperation.
- Deep down most people want to live the hero’s journey.
- What do we need to subtract?
- What is the highest and best good that you can aim for?
- Figure out the top 1% or 5% activity that you could possibly be doing.
- 80/20 is not just a business rule of thumb, it’s most powerful when it’s an action you take.
- All great leaders rack the shotgun.
There’s a lot more in the full interview, so I hope you will pick up a copy of The Future of the Workplace and discover more powerful insights from Perry Marshall!
What people are saying about Forward Thinking Workplaces –
Your questions are more important than our answers? Why? Because every leader ought to be asking him/herself those questions and implementing the forward thinking insights that will create meaningful purpose, and superior performance.
John Bell
CEO (Past), Jacobs SuchardFORWARD21: top articles that got my attention
10 ways to have a better conversation ⎜Celeste Headlee
I find a lot of advice on this topic not very helpful. Invest 12 minutes to watch this video, and I believe you will it immediately helpful.
She shares 10 useful rules for having better conversations. “Go out, talk to people, listen to people,” she says. “And, most importantly, be prepared to be amazed.”
I agree with Celeste: “Most advice on this topic is crap.”
1. Don’t multi-task
2. Don’t pontificate.
3. Use open-ended questions.
4. Go with the flow.
5. If you don’t know, say so.
6. Don’t equate your experience with theirs.
7. Try not to repeat yourselves.
8. Stay out of the weeds.
9. Listen.
10. Be brief.
You’re Not Listening. Here’s Why. ⎜Kate Murphy in The NY Times
Have you ever considered this? This idea sure hit home for me:
“Once you know people well enough to feel close, there’s an unconscious tendency to tune them out because you think you already know what they are going to say.”
What’s the best way to deal with this?
“It turns out the best way for us to really understand those closest to us is to spend time with them, put down our phones and actually listen to what they have to say.”
Kate Murphy is also the author of You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters.
The Future of Work Is Conversational ⎜Daniel Stillman
In keeping with the theme of conversation that has dominated this week’s newsletter, I’m really looking forward to a new book coming soon from Daniel Stillman: Good Talk: How to Design Conversations that Matter.
Here are a few thoughts from Daniel on why conversations are so important and why we need to pay more attention to having better conversations:
“The future of work is in jobs where the outcomes are tough to measure and goals shift frequently. These jobs can only be done through conversation.”
“At work and in our work, we’re not taught how to have conversations. The art of conversations is lost in the fast-paced, tech-driven world. When we’re next to someone we don’t offer to make conversation, we look down at our phones, avoiding any potential awkward conversation. The result being — we don’t really know how to talk to people.”
FORWARD21: books
80/20 Sales and Marketing ⎜Perry Marshall
You might be surprised to see this book listed here, but I assure you that the ideas in this book go well beyond sales and marketing.
Here are a few of my favorite highlights from the book:
“You harness 80/20 by racking the shotgun. You send one calculated signal that most ignore, but a few to respond to.”
“Racking the shotgun means triggering your audience and seeing who responds.”
“What’s your single most important question about __?“
“Why would it make a difference in your life to get a good answer for this problem or find a solution for your need? “
“How difficult has it been for you to find a good answer for the above to date?”
In Closing
Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, please consider forwarding it to someone who’d benefit from it or consider buying a copy of my latest book The Future of the Workplace.
If you’d like to explore any topics in this newsletter, please feel free to email bill@billfox.co to start a conversation.
To your great work life & success!
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