Gravity: How To Cultivate Focus And Execute Better

Focus is mission-critical, but astir companies don’t little nan gravitational forces pulling connected attention.

As a result, ample companies pinch excessively overmuch wide person a difficult clip navigating and adapting to nan quickly changing integrated maturation landscape:

• Google’s algorithm updates have struck hard and left casualties.
• Even mini rank changes successful apical positions person an outsized impact.
• Consumer behaviour connected nan net is messy and difficult to track
• Teams are shrinking: 80,000 tech workers person been laid disconnected successful 2024 truthful far.1
• Marketing budgets were slashed connected mean by 10 to 20% complete nan past 2 years and only slow started to recover.2
• Tech workers walk 2 retired of 5 days per week connected meetings and email.3 Only 43% of nan clip is spent connected existent tasks.

No level has arsenic galore changes of requirements. Over nan past 3 years, Google launched 8 Core, 19 awesome and 75-150 insignificant updates. The institution mentions thousands of improvements each year.

As individuals, we unrecorded successful a distracted world, wherever 1 of nan astir important skills is managing attention. How did we deliberation teams are immoderate different?

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No Win Without Focus

Sir Isaac Newton realized that nan sun’s gravity causes planets to orbit it successful an elliptical path. Gravity successful nan workplace is simply a distraction from nan attraction of individuals and teams:

• Meetings.
• Fire drills.
• Red tape.
• Strategy pivots.
• Too galore goals.
• Alignment overhead.
• Too galore cooks successful nan kitchen.
• Procurement and ineligible rabbit holes.
• Non-critical emails and Slack messages.

The larger a institution gets, nan stronger its gravity.

Taken to an extreme, it takes companies everlastingly to motorboat moreover a azygous feature, and they autumn down nan competition.

For individuals, gravity is moreover much consequential: Scattered attraction intends getting thing done, having nary impact, and apt being fired. Worse, group get exhausted and burned retired successful nan process.

“Tranquility comes from doing less,” (Ryan Holiday), but a batch of teams execute scatter-brained for illustration a teen multitasking betwixt Netflix, TikTok, and texting.

Individual and squad attraction are connected astatine nan hip. When a squad is distracted, it transfers to individuals. Two-thirds of group struggle to find nan power to do their job.4

Whenever I get overwhelmed, my encephalon tells maine to unfastened my email inbox and look for a speedy dopamine hit. But uncovering speedy tasks and engaged activity is nary achievement.

Real effect comes from moving done tedious, analyzable problems.

We cannot erase gravity, but we tin do 5 things better:

1. Communication.
2. Prioritization.
3. Strategy.
4. Red Tape.
5. Meetings.

Better Communication

Unclear connection is 1 of nan biggest attraction drainers. We discarded a batch of clip deciphering what different group mean.

At Shopify, we had a very precocious barroom for what soul communications went retired to nan Growth org and really they would beryllium framed.

It’s easy to @ your full squad connected Slack, but what group really request is cardinal information:

• What’s going on?
• How is it applicable to me?
• What do I request to know/do?

Lazy connection has monolithic velocity cost. In nan book “Smart Brevity,” nan authors supply a elemental model for penning clear statements:

1. Start pinch a muscular tease that grabs attraction pinch six aliases less beardown words.
2. Explain what recipients request to cognize successful the first sentence.
3. Explain why it matters.
4. Offer a prime to go deeper by providing much optional context.

Most important: Think astir 1 point you want group to retrieve – not more. Nobody has clip to publication a Slack novel.

Better Prioritization

At PayPal, Peter Thiel established a civilization of hardcore focus. He would only talk their No. 1 privilege pinch managers and clasp them accountable for conscionable their 1 main publication to nan company.

Focus is simply a forcing usability to abstracted nan wheat from nan chaff erstwhile it comes to what to walk clip on.

No 1 could beryllium a amended illustration of hardcore prioritization than engineers. If you want to get thing connected nan ENG roadmap, thing other has to give.

An effective roadmap operating strategy has only a fewer lines of code:

• What’s nan goal?
• What are nan apical 3 things that get america there?
• For those 3 things, what do we request successful position of people, assets, time, support from different teams, and tools?
• For those 3 things, who does what, by when?
• Defend yourself and your squad arsenic overmuch arsenic imaginable from thing else.

You ne'er look backmost astatine your clip astatine a institution and say, “Man, my fourth, fifth, and sixth privilege backmost past really deed home,” but you mightiness retrieve nan effect of priorities one, two, and three.

Cal Newport’s caller book, “Slow Productivity,” mentions doing little arsenic 1 of nan apical ways to do amended work.

But nan proposal I for illustration nan astir is doubling nan clip you deliberation a task takes.

Doubling automatically trims your roadmap by astir apt 50% but makes it much apt that you present connected clip and present well.

A large portion of moving ourselves into an overcommitment area is underestimating really agelong projects return (I deliberation I wrote nan past condemnation astatine slightest arsenic overmuch for myself arsenic for you).

Better Strategies

Poor strategies are difficult to travel and confuse nan team.

In my experience, managers want to get fancy, but they miss nan astir important point: A bully strategy intends doing thing different from nan competition.

Instead of outworking contenders, you want to do thing that’s unsocial and leans to your competitory advantage.

Pairing differentiation pinch prioritization, your 3 astir important projects should underline really you execute nan aforesaid extremity successful a different measurement arsenic your competitors.

For example, alternatively of penning 100 blog articles, tin you build a programmatic play aliases a database of tools? Or tin you leverage contributors who constitute nan contented alternatively of a ample in-house team?

I besides recovered that astir strategies simply aren’t clear. A elemental trial for clarity is to up aliases downsize nan aboveground you person to explicate it: Can you definitive your strategy successful 1 paragraph (TL;DR), 1 page (high-level), and 1 doc (in-depth)?

Less Red Tape

Red portion successful nan shape of excessive bureaucracy kills execution. I’ve seen galore companies that return galore weeks and endless alignment meetings earlier being capable to motion up for a elemental SaaS tool.

Procurement and ineligible teams tin slow companies down and frustrate teams beyond means.

The cardinal to having velocity and a bully information process is clear guidelines erstwhile ineligible aliases procurement steps in.

With 1 of my erstwhile clients, nan fastest-growing fintech startup successful history, we sat down pinch nan ineligible squad and sewage a afloat download connected guardrails. What tin we opportunity and what not? When do we person to get ineligible approval, and erstwhile tin we move guardant without it?

This is simply a task for nan squad head aliases org leader. While tedious, nan bully news is that erstwhile nan borders person been established, teams tin move guardant faster and attraction connected execution.

Fewer Meetings

Tobi Lütke, laminitis and CEO of Shopify, called meetings a “bug.” The activity squad regularly deployed nan “Chaos Monkey,” a book that deletes each recurring meetings pinch much than 2 participants. Other companies group guardrails astir time. Calendly restricts meetings to noon until 5 p.m.

Most meetings are poorly run, unnecessary, aliases simply a measurement for group to socialize.

Besides an agenda, each gathering should person a clear purpose. There really are only 3 types of meetings: socializing, accusation sharing, and decision-making.

Building relationships successful nan workplace is important, and location is thing incorrect pinch socializing. It’s important to beryllium definitive and debar gathering to “talk astir Project X” while really wanting to socialize.

Information-sharing meetings are champion done async. Instead of getting a ample group of group together, grounds your connection successful a video aliases constitute a memo.

Decision-making meetings should beryllium led by nan determination shaper and travel pinch a pre-read.

The problem pinch galore ample organizations is that decisions are poorly framed; it’s unclear who makes nan decision, and nan decision-maker doesn’t person definitive criteria for really to make nan decision.

Outlook: Can AI Help Us Regain Focus?

Show maine really focused your squad is, and I’ll show you a squad that will win.

High gravity successful ample organizations, connected nan different hand, is an inquire to beryllium disrupted by a smaller, much agile player. The bully news is that exertion is moving against gravity – astatine slightest successful nan workplace.

AI has nan imaginable to thief america find fragmented information, unit clarity, and return complete bland admin tasks that drain clip truthful we tin attraction connected things that matter.

Microsoft’s Future of Work study concludes:

“Organizational knowledge is fragmented crossed documents, conversations, apps and devices, but LLMs clasp nan imaginable to stitchery and synthesize this accusation successful ways that were antecedently impossible”.5

In nan future, we’ll beryllium capable to inquire LLMs questions astir immoderate soul process, for illustration “What are our apical goals?” aliases “Does this request ineligible review?” The freed-up clip allows america to refine our strategies and get activity done.

That early still seems a fewer years away. Until then, we tin do a batch to amended our attention.

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1 Layoffs.fyi

2 Marketing spending shows signs of growth, but AI take is slow: report; Beyond belt-tightening: How trading tin thrust resiliency during uncertain times

3 Will AI Fix Work?

4 Workers Now Spend Two Full Days a Week connected Email and successful Meetings

5 Microsoft New Future of Work Report 2023

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Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/MCP