The 80/20 rule revisited

I have written about the 80/20 rule both in this blog and in my books.  It is a useful tool for may situations.

I learned something new about it today. It is also called Pareto Principle, after 19th Century thinker Vilfedo Pareto. He described the distribution of probable results and options as a mathematical function that is then graphed.

The resulting graph gets divided into the vital few and the trivial many.

Thanks to ongoing ITIL training for this insight!

'Time Banks' Help Spaniards Weather Financial Crisis

 

With the financial systems in the balance, people are looking for all sorts of alternatives to get the services they need.

Time banks are where people exchange time instead of money. Work and hour and someone works for you for an hour. It doesn't have to be the same person.  For example, I could earn an hour by tutoring math to person A and then consume that hour by getting housekeeping services from person D.

Everything is done on a gifting basis, so there is no tax involved.

It is making life possible for the people in economically ravaged Spain:
http://www.npr.org/2012/09/22/161380937/time-banks-help-spaniards-weather-financial-crisis

It is available in Austin:
http://www.austintimeexchange.org/

It is a great idea!

What services can you trade?

Vision>Strategy>Tactics

These three words get thrown around a lot. How do they relate? Do other words have almost the same meaning? The basic definitions clear up a lot!

A vision is a set of ideals - not a set of laws or rules. It is the overall goal of your efforts. Vision is immensely valuable in times when the obvious path is not clear. It is a guidepost or beacon to keep us from losing our way. Two upcoming parts of my Become a Change Agent book series deals with vision.

Strategy is a general plan or way of actions to achieve the vision. A strategy explains how advantages in resources are to be best used against vulnerabilities in barriers to reach objectives.  A vision needs one or more strategies. They are also called business models, distribution channels and lines of business in the commercial world.Step 1 of the Change Agent: Framework includes developing a strategy.

Bill Carson has an excellent blog on strategy.

A tactic is the tool to implement strategy. A tactic is specific action plan implemented as one or more specific tasks. Tactics are sometimes called other names like tools, methods, templates or processes. Steps 3 and 4 of the Change Agent: Framework go into tactics.

An Example

Rapid software development is the vision. Agile Development style is the strategy. Scrum, Pivot and Iterate are tactics. I write a lot more on this subject in my upcoming book, Become A Change Agent: Drive the positive change you want for yourself and the World! Part 3: The Framework.

Visions, strategies and tactics have something in common: they are meant to be used over and over again.

What is your personal vision?

Wex Development Team

Tony Cota's Wex is a great community building project. I will find a way to get involed

http://tonycota.ning.com/