Scientific Definition
Most outcomes come from a few causes.
Plain-English Definition
Most outcomes come from a few causes.
Feynman Explanation
80% of your strategy work serves 20% of your strategy.
Core Principle
Most outcomes come from a few causes.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Most outcomes come from a few causes.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Prioritizing the few incentives doing the heavy lifting.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
80% of your strategy work serves 20% of your strategy.
Examples
- 20% of customers drive 80% of revenue. Frequently.
- Prioritizing the few incentives doing the heavy lifting.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Quarterly: identify the 20% and ruthlessly defund the rest.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Quarterly: identify the 20% and ruthlessly defund the rest.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
When a system in equilibrium is disturbed, it shifts to counteract the change.
Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.
Combining substances to create a new material stronger than its parts.
A single constraint limits the throughput of an entire system.
A system's throughput is constrained by its single slowest step.
Small visible disorders signal that bigger ones will be tolerated.
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
Adding people to a late project makes it later.
A substance that speeds up a reaction without being consumed.
Nonlinear systems are highly sensitive to initial conditions.
Inputs combine under conditions to produce new outputs — sometimes irreversibly.
Software architecture mirrors org structure.