Three cheers for Sir Alan, nope this isn’t about Premium Bonds, as you’ll know from the premium bonds: are they worth it? guide we’re not singing from the same song sheet on that one.
Yet when I finally got round to watching The Apprentice from two weeks ago, he did something which made my heart sing.
One of the contestants told him they’d give 110% effort, and he snapped back something akin to “just 100% will do, don’t start with that.”
Now this proves that Sir Alan is a proper numbers man, and I’m very glad to see I’m not the only one who gets frustrated with this trite & incorrect phrase.
As I wrote in my first blog declaring war on 110% effort, you can’t give more than 100%, the point is quite simple.
“You cannot give more than 100% effort. Giving 101% means you are making an effort beyond your actual capacity. Even if you are making more effort than was previously possible for you, then in fact your ‘effort output’ has increased, but you’re still giving 100% (though an effort level you may previously have described as 80% is now recalibrated as a 79% effort!).”
PS. Also see related old blogs: further war on 110% effort, Go JLS – 100% right.