The shadows grow long as the sun slips behind the rugged mountain peaks. It was meant to be an afternoon hike - in and out, but you’ve lost track of time, and now, deep in the tall woods, your phone battery exhausted, the moonless night draws in. Waypoints obscured by darkness, hopelessly lost, you resolve yourself to a cold, uncomfortable night.
At a time like this, what do you do? Is there any confusion as to what matters? I imagine your number of Twitter followers isn’t consuming much of your bandwidth. Maslow placed physiological drives at the foundation of his famous hierarchy of needs for a reason. Physical needs like warmth and water, when unmet, jump-start our primal drives, creating intense focus. [1]
Under stress, physiological changes happen as well. For example, early in the fasted state, your body increases its energy output. It seems counter-intuitive, but adrenaline drives alertness - our body’s innate intelligence knows we will need all our senses online if we’re to survive to see the next morning. The body is selfish, efficient - ruthlessly prioritizing what matters.
At work, we lose this connection to natural laws. We operate in an artificial world with culture and norms created by people just as flawed as ourselves. There haven’t been eons of evolution honing these rules through a cycle of iteration and applied fitness.
The corporate framers don’t always get it right. Awareness that the system may be flawed bestows upon us an obligation to bring curiosity, if not skepticism, to the artifice that has been erected around us. We often have to use our own judgment and figure out what to pay attention to and what to ignore.
Let’s imagine you’ve just been asked to take on a new project - to ‘make it happen’. As usual, it’s important and urgent - no one ever gets the time they feel they need - sorry. In the hasty transition, you manage to gather a few insights as to what’s desired:
“We need it ready in two weeks.”
“It has to have high quality.”
“It must scale to the Fortune 100.”
“We have to support international languages.”
“Customers have to be involved to validate.”
“Accessibility is a top priority.”
“Of course, it has to be simple to use.”
Ok, the shape is coming together, but as you get to work, you realize that you can’t get everything done. In fact, many of these items work against each other. Now you start wondering which ones really matter? Worse, in subsequent meetings, some items on the wishlist are mentioned again, others are not, and new ones emerge. What’s going on?
‘When you say “yes” to one thing, you are inevitably saying “no” to another.” - Andy Grove
Time to insert an obligatory sports analogy. Why is it that basketball teams or Olympic athletes aren’t paralyzed by where to focus? Mercifully, in their world, the desired outcome is not subject to debate or varied opinions. They are there to win. Period. To have one more point than the competition - to run faster, throw farther. The blinking scoreboard perpetually visible above the field of play is a powerful focusing mechanism. Everything the athlete does - their nutrition, workout schedule, training, and a thousand other details are all aiming at the same target, and everyone knows it.
We’ll work isn’t sports, but we can still apply the idea of a clear, well-understood target to our world of unclear expectations. Since communications tend towards the messy and incomplete - you must engineer this clarity for you and your team. This applies to work you’ve been assigned and if you’re a manager, to how you ask for your team’s help. Done well, this simple step of taking the time to clarify and prioritize expectations will save countless hours for everyone involved. [2]
“A manager’s output = the output of his organization + the output of the neighboring organizations under his influence.” - Andy Grove
Creating clarity doesn’t mean you get the final vote on what matters - you are a facilitator of focus both for your team and the entire organization. Not just understanding, but shared understanding - up, down, and across the organization. Why are we doing this? What does success look like? As importantly, what doesn’t matter? Guessing what is actually important is the biggest waste of human effort I’ve seen inside organizations. [3]
Shrink the target.
[1] If you find yourself staring down an unplanned night outdoors, consult the Sacred Order. It provides a useful guideline for those looking to survive outdoors - advising us that finding shelter ranks highest on the priority list. Once protected, staying warm (fire) and hydrated (water) come next - food is a distant priority.
[2] Delegation is powerful, but like any skill, must be learned. Delegate in a thoughtful way, or not at all. Mick Jagger and Stephen R. Covey are instructive in this regard.
[3] This was well lampooned in the Silicon Valley episode, Sticky Bear.