Not ONE THING

So you might have heard me say - just once or twice - that doing ONE THING and doing it deep by

- working on something that matters

- in different ways - to make it accessible

- over enough time - to make it sustainable and

- engaging everyone

is a brilliant way to build a great culture, support business success and energise your people.

But I was reminded the other day of an experience where doing ONE THING went badly wrong. Our leader's ability to focus on a single thing that only mattered to a few people meant most of the team were left on the sidelines.

This particular leader didn't want to engage outside her singular concern. She did say that, "When there is an emergency (which was a bit of a dubious assertion) then it's all hands on deck."

But there was nothing for the rest of the team to do. In the meantime, we were instructed not to proceed until she could okay our work. And that might be a while.

This isn't an example of doing ONE THING deep - which creates engagement and connection on purposeful work that energises your team or organisation.

This proved divisive and demotivating, and after a few months, our best and brightest left.

It's not ONE THING at the expense of everything else; it's ONE THING in service of it.