Words From Paul: September Edition

The 80% Rule, aka How I’m Learning To Let Go… 

The past four years have been an exciting time for OneSource Technology.  I can safely say that we are twice the company we were four years ago.  Twice the number of employees, twice the number of clients and twice the number of computers we manage for those clients.  But this post isn’t about that. 

As we’ve grown, I’ve come to realize that I can’t do it all.  That, along with a recent milestone birthday (60, WTH?) and I decided it was time to add to the team, delegate some tasks, and develop the team.  If you’re a client, you may have unfortunately seen some of this.  Several cases where a task or project got done late because “that’s a Paul thing.” 

But as I’ve been giving the team some more freedom it’s also caused me some stress, that is until I stumbled upon the idea we’re calling “The 80% Rule.”   

What does that mean?  Well, if I delegate a role or project to someone on the team, and they do it 80% of the way that I would have done it, that needs to be good enough for me.  We can chalk the remaining 20% up to life experience, habits, or sometimes even beliefs and opinions.  But the fact they got to the 80% means they’ve learned our process, our procedures, our goals, and most importantly our “why”.  I’ve done my job. 

Let me tell you, it’s not easy.  In fact, the number 80% is written on a whiteboard in my office to remind me of it every moment.  It probably gets in the way most often when I’m asking someone to write or create something.  We’re in the process of implementing new client survey tools and as the team has created templates and forms, I have found myself wanting to change a word here and another word there.  What’s the real value of those changes?  Nothing.  So, they are way past the 80% and I’m still not letting go.   

Sometimes they go really beyond that 80% and really shine.  Some of you may remember what we’re calling Black Friday.  On July 19, 2024 a security vendor released an update that “blue screened” computers all over the world.  It’s not a vendor we use, but I saw the news about it first thing in the morning.  I happened to be on vacation and was getting ready to eat breakfast when I saw a Teams post to one of our shared channels.  A client had called our help desk to ask if they should be worried and we told them no.  A minute later, another member of our team asked if we should send something out to our clients about it.  My quick response (while looking over the menu for breakfast) was “No.”  That was quickly followed by another member of the team posting “Yes.”  My response?  “Eating breakfast, if you want to do it, fine, you write it and send it.”  About 15 minutes later (before my breakfast arrived) there was a link to a draft posted in the Teams channel, a couple of other members suggested some edits, and they asked if I was OK with it being sent out.  I gave some quick instructions on how to send it from our CRM and it was in the hands of our clients.  That day, several clients reached out to thank me (?) for sending it and keeping them in the loop.  That day the team went really beyond the 80%, in fact, they showed me I was wrong. 

Just in case any of my team are reading this, the 80% rule does NOT apply to established process and procedures.  While those are open to review and updating, once I process is an established process, it needs followed 100%.  As our client, I’m sure you expect that.  But the 80% rule has allowed all of us to grow, learn, and maybe even mature in our roles. 

As a business owner or leader, how are you empowering your team?  Are you actually in the way of things getting done and customers getting served?  Or are you setting some guardrails and letting your team learn where the road goes and maybe even learning a little about yourself along the way?  Once you’ve trained them and they know your “why” you might find they know the direction better than you do.