“80 percent of the work is done by 20 percent of the people.”
When I first heard this statement, I thought that it could not be real. How could that be possible? How it is that most of the work is shouldered by only a few. Is this fair?
Despite what I wanted to believe, I wanted to look into this more. As I come to understand it, this statement describes what’s known as Pareto’s principle, or the 80/20 rule. Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) was an Italian economist and sociologist who described this phenomenon as he looked at trends in 19th century England. In his observations, he noted that 80 percent of the wealth was controlled or owned by 20 percent of the population. Pareto further extrapolated the 80/20 theory and looked at other populations in Europe, and the general trend for income distribution held up consistently there as well.
While this is not a law of nature, the observation simply stated is that things in life are not distributed equally. The ratio does not have to be exactly 80:20, but that the input and output in any given situation are usually not even. This principle can be very useful in business, economics, and time management. You may spend significant time counseling a patient or family member about medicine to take, or a choice that has to be made, but those efforts may not translate in their avoidance of a heart attack, or one of life’s many pitfalls.
One of my goals in serving as the VCMS president is to focus on engagement. We need to be an active and engaged medical society to serve our members and our community. Our board of directors isworking to represent you and to make our organization better. The 80/20 rule may apply to other organizations, but my hope is that when others look at our group, that we would blow that trend out of the water. Wouldn’t it be incredible if we saw 100% of our physicians in our community become members of the medical society?Moreover, then, what if we saw 100% of our physicians being beacons of leadership, health educators in our communities, and advocates for our patients and our fellow physicians?Now that is what a medical society should be.
We need you. If you arenot a member of the VCMS yet, we want to welcome you to join us in this endeavor. For our members, will you come and join us?Our next couple of events includes the VCMS/ First District Golf Scramble on May 8th, which supports our IU-Evansville medical school scholarship. If you cannot golf like me, the reception after the scramble can be a place to relax, network, and celebrate with your colleagues at Victoria National. Our annual meeting is set for June 1st at the Evansville Country Club with the honorable Rep. Larry Bucshon as our speaker. VCMS board meetings are held every other month and are open to our members. We would love to have you visit with us and share your thoughts. Please come. Get engaged. This is your Medical Society.
Chris Chacko, M.D.
