Barriers (and myths) to Effective Focus and Goal Achievement

There are many reasons given for NOT being focused, for not having an understanding of the three dimensional (Looking in, out and all around) environment in which you operate.  If you want to hear them with your own ears, go find a group of business owners whose business has recently failed - it certainly is not the only reason but these are very common with them, I can assure you.

• There is not enough time to work through process

• We can't get buy-in from….???

• Belief that informal understandings of values, vision, mission and goals from some "exercise" are enough.

• We have no major conflicts and are surviving so "everyone must be aligned with values, vision, goals… when they are not .  This always takes work (effort).

• The belief that a vision and or strategy is not needed after all, things "move too fast"

• The belief that we don’t need to formalize things because some “value proposition ” or mission statement or motto  is our vision, mission and strategy- usually something customer service/satisfaction or technical superiority.  This is best called focus without substance.

• The belief that we’ve been successful (relative to?) to date, why do we need this?

• The belief that we’ve made it this far without it and we don’t want to risk changing things…

• Things change too fast to worry about that...

So how do you get it right, the right strategy and the right execution?  Making significant improvements in the growth, profitability, cost structure, competitive advantages… of an organization takes a disciplined process and considerable effort. We believe there is a common sense approach and process for achieving success which most of the time necessarily involves setting the right goals and executing the right plan to achieve those goals. While common sense is one important factor, efficiency, doing it quickly without wading through minutia is also important.

The effort of developing the focus and instilling it in your people is a valuable set of activities that enables you to maximize the productivity of your people, channel your efforts far more efficiently and take advantage of the environment in which you exist rather than be subject to it (pursue opportunities rather than get consumed by dealing with threats).