The first Discipline of Execution is the “Discipline of Focus”, it aims to avert all your attention to one or

two goals that will make a great impact instead of exerting effort on countless of goals. It is quite
necessary to stay focus on things that matters the most in order to execute the task effectively and
efficiently. The discipline of focus also demands a person to contradict with their basic wiring as a leader
and give more attention on few things so the group can achieve more. In the field, focus is essential to
stay in great shape despite all the hindrance that the business might face. However, narrowing your
focus on less things does not mean it also entails how a person should narrow their mind because it is
really the opposite. It is not shameful to revert things back to how it is before, you are not alone and if
you as a leader is unable to focus on problems despite how small or big it is can somehow affect the
company in a greater scale. If you want to accomplish multiple goals, it is easier to finish it one by one
instead of multitasking because it results to diversion of attention and may lead to something you are
incapable to fix. Basically, discipline of focus is about applying more energy against fewer goals since the
law of diminishing returns is as real as the law of gravity.
 The table that is presented shows how many goals you can achieve depending on how many
goals you have set. By adding more goals, you are going backward and it is because you are unable to
focus on detailed and trivial things that affects how the goal is being done. The fundamental principle of
discipline of focus is that human beings are hardwired to do one thing at a time with excellence. There
may be people out there thinking that they can multitask effectively but the thing is you are not at your
best. Steve Jobs is a legendary when it comes to focus, he chose to focus on wildly important products
and the result is what he was able to attain so far. Science has proven that human brain can give full
focus to only one thing at a time, you will not be able to give your best effort by multitasking. Earl Miller
a MIT neuroscientist stated that “Trying to concentrate on two tasks causes an overload of the brain’s
capacity”. Definitely, if a person tries to carry too much information on hand the brain simply slows
down. According to Professor Clifford Nass of Stanford University “The neural circuits devoted to
scanning, skimming, and multitasking are expanding and strengthening, while those used for reading
and thinking deeply, with sustained concentration, are weakening or eroding.” The consequences of
these acts sacrifices the quality of a person that can produce, by not being able to give his/her full
potential on focusing at a certain thing then you really bound to make a bad decision in the near future.
Jordan Grafman of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in the USA says that
“Improving our ability to multitask actually hampers our ability to think deeply and creatively. . . the
more you multitask . . . the less deliberative you become; the less you’re able to think and reason out a
problem”. You really do not have to overload your brain, it is important to concentrate to the task on
hand and still be aware of other things. An example is an airport control tower, so if there are many
airplanes approaching the airport the air traffic controller must make sure the safe land of one airplane
at a time while being aware of other airplanes. In order to succeed, it is necessary to be willing to make
hard decisions that separate what is wildly important from all the many other important goals on your
mind. This does not mean that you are going to abandon your other goals, it is just that it is not yet the
right time for you to contemplate on such goal.
 With this table in mind it is possible that you are possessing conventional thinking and ignore the
discipline of focus but the thing is it will not ignore you. Exercising the discipline of focus will help you to
achieve more in a matter of time with unequal quality and you can be proud that you bested it with your
abilities and skills.

The Leader’s Challenge

A question has been raised and it is quite important to be aware of this. Why is there so much pressure
toward expanding, rather than narrowing, the goals? If you understand the need to focus, why is it so
difficult to actually do it? If you are a leader, then these thoughts were common because a leader should
be able to see dozens of existing things that requires improvement and a space for development. In the
words of the old cartoon, Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” It is quite senseless at first but if
you can just dwell on it then maybe you will realize something. Often times, you are your own worst
enemy. Being a leader is not an easy feat, sometimes it drives a person being too aggressive and
ambitious. The problem with this is you create more people who are creative but ambitious and they
want to do multiple things at a time. The greatest challenge that you might possible encounter in
narrowing your goals is that it requires you to say no to a lot of great things. The discipline of focus is
clearly about focusing one thing at a time so when a great idea was proposed then it will be stack up
until you make time for it. There were times when good ideas are not present one at a time and as a
leader it is difficult to say no to these things but with this thinking then you are just falling into the trap
of your own making.
COO Tim Cook told the shareholders “We are the most focused company that I know of or have read of
or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day. We say no to great ideas in order to keep
the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the
ones we do choose. The table each of you are sitting at today, you could probably put every product on
it that Apple makes, yet Apple’s revenue last year was $40 billion.” They are certainly practicing the
discipline of focus, by being arrogant enough to say no to good ideas and focus on a certain goal in mind
they were able to be successful in the things that they do. Stephen R. Covey says “You have to decide
what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, unapologetically—to say
no to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside.” Understanding
the importance of saying no to good ideas is a great step in narrowing your team’s focus.
It is only right to spend 80% of the time improving the whirlwind and keeping it afloat but if ever they
tried to improve all those dials then they will certainly lose their focus. Many of the dials may require
changes in human behavior in order to move them, by just focusing on one dial then you will certainly
be able to exert your full potential. To be able to avoid the two focus traps which are refusing to say no
to all good ideas and trying to make everything in the whirlwind a goal, you should be able to narrow
your focus to what is wildly important and consistently invest your time and energy. Basically, if you are
able to lead your team to focus on what is wildly important then you will be able to make a team with
high focus and performance.

IDENTIFYING YOUR WILDLY IMPORTANT GOALS

A wildly important goal (WIG) is a goal that can make all the difference. You're going to commit to apply
a disproportionate amount of energy to it. It is not advisable to ask yourself what is important because it
will lead your mind running in circles and it is because our mind is set that those whirlwinds are
competing to be the most important. To determine what is wildly important goal it is better to ask "If
every other area of our operation remained at its current level of performance, what is the one area
where change would have the greatest impact?" this question will help you to identify where your focus
should be pointed at. Wildly important goals may from two categories which will come either within or
outside. Within the whirlwind, it could be possible that something should be fix or it could be a value
proposition that is not being delivered. However, it could also be an area which the team is doing great
and it may lead to a significant impact. While outside the whirlwind, the choices tend to be about
repositioning yourself strategically like launching new product or services even though this may result to
a drastic change to the behavior of the team because it will be completely new for them. The real aim is
not just to achieve the goal whether it comes within or outside but also make a new level of
performance for the team’s operation. Once a WIG is achieved it reverts back into the whirlwind and
every time it happens the whirlwind changes. By doing this, it leads to a new performance level that is
being sustained and a much higher performing whirlwind is being created. This is the foundation of WIG
that enables your team to pursue one goal at a time. A WIG is fundamental to the heart of the mission
because achieving it defines the existence of an organization.

Focusing The Organization

Narrowing the focus for an entire organization or even a large portion of an organization is a
much bigger challenge. So there are 4 rules to ensure that things will go smoothly as planned it to be.

Rule #1: No team focuses on more than two WIG’s at the same time.

This rule is acting as the governor on an engine. There may be countless WIG’s across an
organization but the key is not to overload a leader, team, or individual. Keep in mind that they are also
dealing task that requires attention and by not being able to comply with this rule you will lose your
focus as an organization.

Rule#2: The battle you choose must win the war.

The sole reason to fight a battle is to only win it. The WIG’s at lower level helps to achieve the
WIG’s at higher levels. It is not enough to just support or align with higher WIG’s, they should ensure the
success of the higher WIG’s. It is quite important to ask this question “What are the fewest high-impact
things we could do to win this war?” with this in mind it helps you to identify which and how many
lower level WIG’s will be needed to achieve the top level WIG. This will guide you to clarify details and to
simplify the strategies you need to exercise.

Rule #3: Senior leaders can veto, but not dictate.

Obviously, if the highest level of execution is what you want to attain then it is not devised solely
by top leaders of the organization. Without involvement, it is impossible to create high level of
commitment that the execution requires. By simply allowing them to define the WIG’s for their team,
this creates a greater sense of ownership and involvement for the team. People become more engaged
in a goal that they want to attain and it still supports the organization. If the battles that are chosen
seems like it was not going to win the war, then the senior leaders can exercise their right to veto. In this
process, the organization becomes more efficiently effective on focusing on that matters and takes
ownership for the better result.
Rule#4: All WIG’s must have a finish line in the form of X to Y by when.

This rule helps to recognize where you are today, where do you want to go, and when is the
deadline on reaching that goal. It may sound simple as it is but many are struggling to translate their
strategic concepts into a form of X to Y by when. By being able to mapped it out on the strategic
concept, this can lead to tremendous clarity on how the process is going to be. If an organization failed
at clarifying this concept, then they will have a hard time determining where is the finish line and where
you stand. If a goal is wildly important, then the form of X to Y by when makes it possible to determine
whether you have achieved it or not. A WIG is not a strategy but a tactical goal with a time frame that
balances the need to create a vision to achieve a goal.

Shooting for the Moon

In 1958, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had important goals but they lacked the
clarity to define the finish line and also lacks the result that the Soviet Union was producing. But in 1961,
President John F. Kennedy stated that “land a man on the moon and return him safely to the Earth
before this decade is out.” This leads the NASA to a war that they should win and it has a time frame
that they should abide.
This table shows the difference between NASA’s goal in 1958 and 1961. With NASA’s reputation at
stake, they determine the key battles which they should win. There were three critical battles and those
are navigation, propulsion, and life support. But with President Kennedy’s speech, the NASA was able to
narrow their focus on a finish line whose achievement become one of the most important ventures in
human history. We tend to think that when accountability is at its highest, the pressure makes morale
go down. The reality is the opposite: Narrowing your focus increases both accountability and the
engagement of your team. Even though you still have to deal with the whirlwind, you also have a finish
line, something which is clear and important at which you can win. With this, the team feels that they
contribute a lot to the result which is meaningful for them.

Discipline of focus requires you to translate strategy from concepts to targets which has a
strategic intent to set a specific finish lines. It will also enable you to sharpen your strategy execution to
achieve a goal in mind.

The rules were unforgiving, once you lost your track then your focus will be set aside. There may
be times when you want to take a shortcut or lessen your baggage but we all know deep inside that the
discipline of focus will always be there we like it or not. It does not concern what you think but it is
always present in all situation. It is already a common sense to focus on a thing but it is not being
practiced. Aesop’s fable taught us a great lesson. When a young boy put his hand into a pot of hazelnuts,
he grasped as many as he could but he found out later that the cannot pull out his hand because the
neck of the pot was too narrow and with this he still did not give up on the nuts and he was unable to
withdraw his hand and burst into tears. As Steve Jobs said “I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of
what we do.” discipline of focus is about defining that greater goal and it is a discipline which we should
exercise.