A Practical Approach to Performance Interventions and Analysis: 50 Models for Building a High-Performance Culture

8. Fifty Years of Problem Solving: A Magnificent Obsession

The title of this chapter indicates that the authors bring substantial experience to problem solving. However, the details of the authors’ experience are beyond the scope of this chapter, leaving the focus on the Work/Life Approach to problem solving. In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed the distribution of income and wealth and introduced what he called the 80/20 rule in which 80 percent of the wealth was controlled by 20 percent of the people and that 20 percent of the people controlled 80 percent of the wealth. Later, Joseph M. Juran dubbed Pareto’s 80/20 rule as the Pareto Principle of mal-distribution and argued that 20 percent of people’ effort (the vital few) produced ...