VIEWPOINTS

Is Your Focus a Fallacy?

By James Brown, PhD

Florida, USA

Last month I facilitated an executive level leadership retreat. I was an observer the first day of the retreat and would facilitate the development and prioritization of organizational goals and challenges on the second day of the retreat. The first day was dominated by a discussion of “Challenge A”, what the organization had done about “Challenge A” and what they were going to do to rectify “Challenge A”. The discussion was intense with folded arms and strong opinions.

On the second day all of the organizational challenges were brainstormed by the group and I facilitated the prioritization of these challenges using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Take a guess where “Challenge A” ended up in relative importance compared to the other challenges. Yes…you guessed it…at the bottom. They had all been focusing on “Challenge A”, disturbed by “Challenge A” and disrupted by “Challenge A” and it was the least important of all their challenges when they looked at the entire picture in context.

They unanimously agreed to stop talking about “Challenge A” and get on with what is truly important. “Challenge A” was very irritating… it just wasn’t important comparatively to the rest of the organizations challenges. This leadership group wasn’t bad…or misguided…they are human beings. You and I have seen this behavior before and odds are high you and I will see it again because...

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About the Author James Brown, PhD Co-Author Dr. James T. Brown, president of SEBA® Solutions Inc., a Registered Education Provider for the Project Management Institute, has provided training and consulting services for dozens of companies nationally and internationally. SEBA® Solutions also provides OnePdu.com http://OnePdu.com for online project management training. A recognized authority in project management, Dr. Brown is a frequently invited speaker on project management areas of interest. He is the author of The Handbook of Program Management published by McGraw Hill and is a member of the Project Management Institute, the National Speakers Association and the National Association of Corporate Directors. Dr. Brown has a patent for a project scheduling methodology, and has received numerous awards including "Engineer of the Year" from the Cape Canaveral Technical Societies and is a recipient of the "NASA Public Service Medal" for exceptional contributions to NASA’s mission. He has a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central Florida, a MS in Engineering Management from Florida Institute of Technology and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee State University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE), a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a certified speaking professional (CSP). To learn more about SEBA® visit www.SebaSolutions.com. You can contact James directly at jtbrown@sebasolutions.com.