How to improve your team's performance: Use these 8 models
entrepreneur, you are either leading a team as a manager, or are accountable for some project or task where you require different people to work together for a successful delivery. A mental model is a summary or compressed version of how a thing works. Let’s consider how you can apply some of these models as a team leader.
Occam’s razor
The 14th century logician, William of Ockham, said, ‘Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.’ In other words, the simplest explanation or solution is usually the best one. As a team leader, your team brings to you tough problems, while time is usually your biggest constraint. Prioritise simplicity in approach. Encourage your team to use Occam’s razor to slice away layers of unnecessary complexity and to prefer simple hypotheses over complex ones. Investigate and implement work processes to reduce number of steps, training time and complicated decision-making. This will reduce errors and increase efficiency.
Pareto principle (80/20 rule)
Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population, or that 80% results come from 20% effort. The popular 80-20 rule is shorthand for this principle, but could be 90-10, or even 70-30, in different situations. As a team leader, learn to identify the vital few versus the useful many among clients, vendors, team members, processes or products. Use it for time management by making sure that the vital 20% actions are prioritised, getting you 80% of the results.
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