Focus starts fires…

I remember when I was a kid, I heard that if you took a magnifying glass (which was apparently more common in the 1980s than now), you could focus the light from the sun and start a fire or burn ants if you were a bit crazy.  I remember amazement as I got a small pile of dead leaves smoldering with fire on my grandmother’s sidewalk.  The energy provided by the sun, the same as every day focused through a lens, can create a small spot of intense energy that will produce results that aren’t seen without the focus.

The same energy focused can start a fire.

The same can be said for our teams and organizations.  The greater the focus, the greater the results, assuming the same energy and assets are provided.  The more we try to do, the more we have to understand the decrease in focus.  Decreasing focus decreases accomplishment. 

In 1997, Steve Jobs was brought back to lead Apple.  He had been let go from the company he had previously started, and the second CEO, John Scully, had been brought in from Pepsi to maximize profits.  As Apple’s vision and values changed around a more “traditional” corporate approach, the business saw a rapid decline in value.  When Jobs returned, he found that the company was making an array of products, including a dozen different models of the Macintosh computer.  

One of the first things Jobs did was cut the manufacturing and distribution of all but four products.  I found this fascinating and thought of a research experiment that years later would show more than four choices, slowing decision-making.  I wonder if Job’s was aware of the science or intuitively understood this about people.  The fact that Stanford published it makes me think he had been made aware of the research, but I don’t know.

Jobs would make focus a key part of all aspects of Apple.  I heard it once said that Jobs described his role at Apple as dreaming of incredible products, finding and hiring the best talent to create the products, fighting with the talent on behalf of the user, and marketing the products to the world.  Job’s focus helped make Apple one of the world's biggest and most successful companies. 

How does this apply to us? Yesterday, after returning to the office after my recent trip to Madagascar, I discussed with a co-worker. In a few moments, he had explained more than four major undertakings he’d like to work on.  I eventually told him that we’d have to focus our energy and resources on fewer things to see greater results and that the hard part would be picking what they would be. 

Leaders, how’s your focus?

Are you working on anything that should be discarded so that you can focus your valuable energy and resources on something more critical?