On Essentialism ... and how you need it now more than ever

Let's face it folks - we're living in a time where it has never been more important to be able to sift through the noise and focus our organizations on the vital few - those most-important things that are critical to the teams success. In turbulent times, it is this very ability of the team - to align and relentlessly pursue only the things that matter - which can become the ultimate measure in determining whether they succeed or fail. We need only look up to find several tangible examples, in both the private and public sectors, where failing to do this has ended or severely curtailed some very storied institutions.

One of my leaders and friends, Peter Wells, introduced me to a book written on the topic of focus - Essentialism “The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” (McKeown, 2014). At the time, I was responsible for helping Mr. Wells develop our operating rhythm and strategic priorities for a large, diverse region in our Onshore Wind business; we faced the same challenge that many complex businesses face when laying out their strategy – how to expand while growing margins in a sustainable way. On its face, this may sound simple (price up, cost down!!!), but in reality the nuances of sifting through the vast amount of information, opportunities and choices, and then narrowing in on the critical few that will truly enable a large and geographically dispersed organization to be successful – required a massive amount of introspection and thought. Sure – we could, as so many organizations often do – attack on all fronts, and try to be good at everything…but surely too, as those organizations often experience – we would find ourselves making “a millimeter of progress in a million directions” (Mckeown, 2014, p. 3) rather than making any sort of true impact.

Rather than taking the traditional approach of mapping out our future, Peter took the Essentialist approach of “Explore, Eliminate, Execute” (McKeown, 2014, p. 24). Yes, we explored a million opportunities and paths, but when Peter drove us to figure out what we needed to be good at to be successful, he focused us to ruthlessly prioritize and down-select. Then, to ensure we didn’t fall into the one-trick pony trap, he integrated these principles and decision trees directly into our operating rhythms and strategic discussions – each strategic priority and KPI was carefully selected, or discarded, so that the Europe region remained focused on the vital few, in a process that was constantly renewed to ensure we remained aligned … I got to see results in action on a large scale. We did more, by pursuing less.

Flash forward to recently, where I was delighted, while discussing and celebrating the promotion of one of my colleagues, to have the opportunity to pay these lessons forward and introduce the Essentialist concepts to her. This particular teammate was once an Intern for me on a team she had just recently been promoted to lead. I was, admittedly, at my proudest observing this happen and watching her get to take the helm…and so when preparing for our discussion, I reached for Greg McKeowns book as a source of guidance.

One of the key principles I shared, as laid out in the book to my new-to-being-a-people-leader friend, was as follows: “Non-Essentialists get excited by virtually everything and thus react to everything. But because they are so busy pursuing every opportunity and idea, they actually explore less.” (McKeown, 2014, p.60). Aside from all the other nuances of truly being a leader, versus being a manager, I felt that this sentiment was one which would steer her well as she begins to face into the countless and endless priorities and pressures from senior leadership, peers, and her staff alike. 

Pause right now, and think – how many things are you asked to prioritize, daily. How many things do you ask your teams to prioritize? Are those priorities truly aligned with those critical few goals or tasks that the team set out to accomplish this year? If not, are you relentlessly eliminating every other distraction? Are you making small progress on all fronts to win a battle, or really crushing it on a few critical ones to win the war?  Then, recognize, that as a leader, who most likely works in a cross-functional matrix, how important a responsibility it is for you to remain focused, for you to give yourself the space to truly prioritize, and for you to thereby ensure that you help your folks work on the things that will make a difference, and help them to not get distracted by the endless noise of their everyday work-lives.

In closing, by saying no to the many extraneous demands or distractions that come across your desk today, I firmly believe you will help your team meet their goals, and make the place better for everyone around you. Less is more. Your ability to prioritize, to focus, and in some cases uncommit – will ultimately yield the results your organization needs to steer through these troubling times...and you need to do this right now, more than ever.

References

McKeown, G. (2014) Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Crown Publishing Group