Maxim #34
Keep the main thing, the main thing
Stephen Covey had a number of very good maxims; this is an adaptation of one of them. This maxim reminds us that it is very easy to get distracted and start putting energy and focus into areas that are not necessarily important or relevant. This can and does happen on projects, in presentations, in meetings, and in daily communication.
One of the seemingly obvious points to this maxim that can cause problems is the simple idea that, to begin with, you actually need to recognize or know what the main thing is. To be able to live by this maxim it is critical that you identify the point of your meeting or presentation up front. What specifically are you trying to achieve? In other words, to keep the main thing the main thing, you actually need to identify the main thing. That is sometimes harder than it seems.
The reason it can be difficult to focus on the main thing, is that your “main thing” may be different from someone else’s. So for presentations or meetings, or emails, you need to clearly specify what the main thing is up front and then everything that follows should support that central thesis. We go to many meetings where ten minutes in no one is exactly sure what the purpose of the meeting is. If it isn’t clear to everyone what the meeting is trying to achieve, it can be easily pulled in different directions and never actually achieve anything.
By clearly articulating the main thing up front, you now have a guiding beacon to keep you on track when distractions start to show up, which they inevitably do. On our projects, we have something we call a Results Plan that the project managers need to create in the first five weeks of an engagement. This Results Plan is the “main thing”. It is the project direction and strategy that guides the course of the project. It’s a simple tool that forces the project director and manager to clearly identify what results we are trying to achieve, in which areas, who is responsible, and how will we be able to measure it.
