creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties

In his book “Good to Great” Jim Collins explains that “good is the enemy of great.”  He goes on to explain that all Great companies have a laser focus on 3 things.  He called it the Hedgehog Concept.  Read the book if you haven’t, believe me you’ll be thankful you did.  But what are the implications of being focused? People don’t talk about that in meetings.

Of course it means saying Yes to the right thing but just as much or more as it does saying NO to the wrong things.  Wait there’s more.  That means you not only say NO to bad ideas but also have to say NO to a lot of good ideas so that the great idea can prevail.  Steve Jobs put it well when he wrote:

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done.”
–Steve Jobs

Have you ever felt like you were able to identify what you needed to focus on but couldn’t quite get to it because you were too busy?  It may be time to start saying NO.