The action: Together with the team, find 1-3 things that won’t be done without your special attention.

The long form: This is step 1 in your improvement rhythm. Start with a small set of goals, then check in daily and weekly to make sure we are working towards these goals.

The key is to limit yourself to no more than three goals at a time. UC Berkeley professor Morten Hansen calls this Do less, then obsess. He found that people who mastered this ruthless prioritisation performed on average 25% better than those who didn’t.

Chris McChesney, in his book The four disciplines of execution calls these your Wildly Important Goals. By aiming to do fewer things, you actually get the work done.

There will always be more good ideas than there is capacity to execute.

Chris McChesney

Addendum 2024-01-16: I think I’m changing my mind on this topic. Perhaps having one – and only one – wildly important goal at a time is better. McChesneys likens it to being an air traffic controller: Although there are several planes due for landing, only one gets full focus until it is safe on the tarmac.

Reading more: To build trust and share the rewards of improving, at least one of these goals should be something that reduces overburden or in other ways improves the lives of your people.

What’s the smallest problem we can fix today?

Is this a short-, or long-term strategy?

Visual workplace 2: Create a compelling scoreboard