Between mugging and slacking at work is the 80/20 rule

IT IS hard to shake the branding of Singapore as one obsessed with dutiful diligence, with some Singaporeans in a recent video about national identity describing days of exams and tuition as a defining practice.

This culture of mugging - with the word apparently derived from the term "mug up" - has long outrun its course as that unquestioned formula of success. Still, the shackles remain.

It can be easily spotted from work attitudes, as conversations with friends in various industries reveal.

Those who still hang on to the dogma still expect to be rewarded for ticking things off a to-do list of work tasks, following textbook checklists.

What tends to follow, too, is that they expect to rise through the ranks as a matter of natural course, building years of service so that they can become managers in the highly specialised area of forwarding deadlines and rubber-stamping them for the corporate hierarchy. (I jest.)

Conversely, of course, the rejection of the mugging culture has also given rise to the perverted notion of "working smart".

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Often, it is less about the actual task at hand - sometimes, tasks are deemed to be small to be worth their efforts, so the result is a slipshod one.

More effort is sometimes spent on kissing up to the corporate hierarchy as early as possible.

The idea of "working smart" here is to accelerate their way up the ranks on a hard-nosed view that in a big bureaucracy, getting noticed by the powers-that-be is the biggest job of all, skills be damned.

Sadly, both approaches in building true leaders can be misplaced for the future economy. For one thing, the single-minded pursuit of corporate ranks and managerial positions is turning outdated.

Technology has allowed information to reach individuals, even in a large corporation, more directly. If a company is run with more efficiency, there is less need for managerial middlemen to parcel down information on a large-scale Chinese Whispers endeavour.

It does not seem wise then, that the celebrated idea of career progression is to knowingly accept to regress on operational skills for title inflation. That pay bump that comes with a title can in some cases be viewed as compensation for skills atrophy, with a penalty in the form of job insecurity to creep up later on.

These days, some enlightened bosses say job applicants who have a specific career trajectory in mind in terms of titles and appointments should be viewed with more scepticism, because their outlook on career development is likely limited.

The misinterpreted idea of "working smart" likewise tosses out the value of learning and a growth mindset.

Even if certain dour realists end up with a similarly inflated title due to theatrical flair on the corporate stage, the rejection of hard work in building skills not only exposes inadequacies as a corporate leader, but also makes it harder for such employees to adapt to new skills if they need to move to new industries in a more fluid workforce of the future.

Instead, there should be greater appreciation for the 80/20 rule at work. The principle isn't a new one, but has been adapted to investing and self-management. The rule is simply this: that 80 per cent of results are derived from 20 per cent of actions.

For the "muggers" in our midst, the perspective is important because it forces the individuals to rethink priorities and single-minded conscientiousness.

This is not to say that smaller tasks with incremental value should be poorly handled. Instead, the industriousness of the future is about mental diligence around figuring out a complex situation or scenario - that 20 per cent of effort - which allows the mind to solve simple questions quicker and more effectively, setting the foundation to bring about effective results.

In some cases, it means learning a concept, understanding its application, digesting the analysis, and then stepping out of the rabbit hole to test it on a problem, and to see to what extent it can be applied to problems in other scenarios. It forces the mind to dig deep into basics for creating solutions, without a textbook approach to problem solving.

Working smart

Calibrating how individuals put effort into mental fortitude results in practices to truly "work smart". The mind becomes more efficient with work assignments that are rote and reiterative, so that it can find more time to tackle the bigger tasks.

This focus on the big 20 per cent effort also changes perceptions for the better when it comes to tackling hurdles - a boost for mental resilience in an increasingly volatile world.

It literally changes mindset from a biological point of view.

If a piece of work is deemed by the brain as stressful, the amygdala - the part of our brain that dictates survival instincts - commands. With a brain operating as a group of different functioning units, the part of our brain that stores memories and deals with higher-order tasks is de-prioritised.

"This is what appears to happen in the brain when it is under continuous stress: it essentially builds up the part of the brain designed to handle threats, and the part of the brain tasked with more complex thought takes a back seat," said an article from Harvard Health Publishing.

Essentially, it's self-sabotage.

Instead, if the brain handles a piece of work by seeing it as a surmountable challenge, the prefrontal cortex is fired up. This triggers the ability to handle higher-order tasks.

Changing how we tackle a difficult problem makes that fundamental difference between a vicious circle of failure and a virtuous cycle of success. It has less to do with the crude measure of intellect, and more to do with curiosity, and mental agility.

As Singapore girds itself to survive through the pains of a global health crisis, there may be no time like now to champion an 80/20 perspective, to build a mindful workforce geared for the future.