words of the week Archive - This Moment Counts

Why you struggle to focus

What the Best Leaders Say | Words of the Week “Focus means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are.” – Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple

Almost everyone misses the point of this quote.
And it’s why you struggle with focus in practice even though you know everything about it in theory.

Here’s how the quote continues:
“You have to pick carefully.”

That’s what is so often missed.

People quote Jobs and think focus is about saying no.

But saying no is meaningless when you don’t know what you say “yes” to.

→ What do you pick?
Can you articulate it with unmistakable clarity?

Chances are you can’t.
How do I know?
Because almost everyone glosses over this.

It’s usually “somewhat” clear, yet never razor-sharp.
But somewhat is insufficient when you want to truly focus.

Somewhat means you’re going to debate every “no”.
Somewhat means there’s never a clear path forward.

Jony Ive elaborated on how Jobs looked at saying no internally:
“What focus means is saying no to something that with every bone in your body you think is a phenomenal idea, and you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you’re focusing on something else.”

Again, it looks as though the point is saying no.
But look closer.
What is that “something else”?

And again: Can you articulate it with unmistakable clarity?

Jobs worked relentlessly on that. It’s why his communication is still – to this day – considered as a peak example for clarity.

Find the yes and saying no will feel so much easier.

It might be the single best investment of your time at this time of the year. It might be the beginning of the year you finally focus.

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

PS: Two ways I can help with that. First, a fireside chat for your team where we discuss how to find yours. Second, the newest issue of “What the Best Leaders Say” digs much deeper on this. The link is under my profile.

PPS: To be fair, here’s the full quote: “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”

So, at first sight it seems like a contradiction to what I said in the post. Jobs explicitly said that “saying yes” is not what focus “means at all”. But I think that’s not what he really meant. I still think that the point is in “you have to pick.” Which IS saying “yes.” And it IS what makes saying no to the 1,000 things possible.

Do you dare to ask that question?

There’s one question that’s almost ridiculously obvious to ask. And yet, in so many meetings no one dares to ask it. It’s this:

→ Wait a second, what’s actually true right now?

When Alan Mulally took over as CEO of Ford, the company was a mess. They were heading toward a $17 billion loss.

But that wasn’t their biggest problem. Because most problems can be fixed.

As long as you know what the problem is.

Not knowing that was Ford’s problem.

They were using the infamous traffic lights system that every team on this planet hates. And they were the quintessential example for why everyone hates it.

Mulally tells a fascinating story about his experiences with it in this video from a Stanford lecture.

In their progress meetings, they had only green charts.

Not a single issue was marked.
Not a single risk was marked.
Nothing.

It was all green.

Now, that is obviously BS (and everyone knows it). But the culture at Ford was so broken that no one dared to flag an issue. Everyone thought that when you flag you get made responsible for it. And you don’t want to live through the consequences of that.

So, even the most senior team members, masked issues to make them appear green.

The brilliance of Mulally wasn’t that he found the solution for the $17B loss. It was that he changed the demonization of the colors red and yellow.

At one point, he stopped the meeting and asked the line you see in the visual.

All the charts are green. I stopped the meeting and I said, Guys, we’re gonna lose $17 billion, is there anything that’s not going well?

You should really watch the video I linked to above. He’s a great storyteller and the way he tells how the situation unfolds is hilarious and eye opening at the same time.

A few more words from Mulally:

“You weren’t red, the issue you’re working on is red.”
It’s a leadership failure if you confuse the two.

“The data sets you free, right? Data tells you everything.”
Honestly, I take this as a shot against the storytelling industry. Stories are great if they serve the data. They are terrible if they dilute it. The spin we saw at Ford was storytelling at it’s worst.

“You can’t manage a secret. People can’t help if they don’t know what the real situation is.”
As it turned out, people were happy to help. Which is what ultimately turned Ford around. Because together you can achieve more than anyone ever could alone.

What happened after that pivotal meeting?

A few weeks later the charts looked like a rainbow. Not because things got worse, but because people finally told the truth.

And so, that meeting was the turning point. The moment Ford stopped pretending and started facing the truth.

In 2009 Ford reported a full-year net income of about $2.7 billion.

That is the power of a leader who makes it safe to show what is true.

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

PS: The latest issue of “What the Best Leaders Say” goes deeper into the same question that unlocked the Ford turnaround. What is actually true right now? If you want to explore how leaders surface truth without fear, here’s the link.

Posts in Tag: words of the week

Why you struggle to focus

Do you dare to ask that question?