Get focused on your metrics (or get lost!)

Remember that one-day workshop I spoke of in last Friday's blog?

As I wind up a workshop that has engaged the participants with some very powerful strategic business planning and execution concepts I know they will want to use to implement change in their workplaces, I always go around the room asking each person to tell me the first thing they plan to do with their new-found strategic planning and execution knowledge.

One person told me "I'm really going to focus on my metrics and KPIs, really, really focus hard on how the team is performing across all our departmental KPIs".

Enthused, I complimented the IT manager on his vigor and focus, and asked "So, which of your KPIs will you focus on?" "I'm gonna focus on all of them" came the reply.

"All of them?", I asked, "How many have you got? "Forty-Seven", came the reply.

Go get a dictionary, and look up the word focus. In this context, it's about concentration of attention.

Nobody can concentrate their attention on forty-seven things at once. The focus of attention must be brought back to the Strategic Few^TM items that are really going to make a big difference.