10-80-10 Principle

First off, don't confuse this principle with the Pareto Principle (80-20 rule) which states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. The 10-80-10 principle comes from Urban Meyer, former head coach of the Ohio State Buckeye football team. In 2014 the Buckeyes won the very first College Football Playoff and were crowned the national champions.

As Coach Meyer explains in his book, "Above The Line", 10% of your team will be your elite performers. They're self-starters and will give you their absolute best regardless of what you do. He calls these people "the nucleus". The other 10% are the people that you're never going to reach. They just don't care. They're walking through life just checking off boxes. (We all know some of THEM don't we?) The 80% are the team members you need to focus on. For the most part they're reliable and trustworthy. Maybe they just don't possess the drive, determination, or knowledge they need to become part of the nucleus group.

Your challenge, as a leader, is to move as many people as possible from the 80% group to the nucleus group. Coach Meyer credits this principle with Ohio State's victory in 2014. "By the end of the 2014 season, our nucleus group was close to 30%."

Human nature makes us naturally want to be around people like ourselves. In the 10-80-10 principle, this means that the nucleus 10% will all hang together, The same goes for the 80% and bottom 10% groups. The key is to have each one of your 10% nucleus group identify someone from the 80% group and "pull" them up to the nucleus 10% group. There are 4 approaches you can take when approaching a member of the 80%:
  1. Mastery and Belief - The 80% member needs to believe it's worth it. They need to believe that the 10% reaching out to them knows what they're doing.
  2. Harness the Power - Just have the 80% member spend time around the 10% nucleus group.
  3. Building Ownership - Get the 80% group involved in any way you can.
  4. Positive Peer Pressure - When the 80% member starts improving, have the other members of the 10% nucleus group praise them.
Imagine your team has 20 members (maybe more!). This means that there are probably 2 of you that are the drivers of the team. There are a couple who won't do anything and you practically have to BEG them to do anything. But there are 16 people that COULD be great performers - with the right mentorship and motivation. Imagine how much fun your team would be with 4, 6, 8, or more, of you driving!

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