Focus

You ask more focus to your team. But … Is it necessary to focus that much?

Focus on Focus

Customer focus. Focus on customer focus. Focus on the result. Focus on growth. Focus on innovation. And if the results are not good, we need … More focus. It is so much focus that both focus on so much, the guy just all focused on focus, but does not end anything.

This causes me anguish that figure is exactly what I feel:

Focus turned the big silver bullet the world. Everything looks can be solved with more focus:

  • Want to lose weight? Can not? Put more focus.
  • Want to be promoted? Can not? Put more focus.
  • Want to save money? Can not? Put more focus.

It seems to be the universal solution. I see people recommending focus to things that have nothing to do. For example, cure a flu:

  • Want to cure a flu? Don’t know what to do? Put on some more focus.

The “Ability to Focus” seems to be much more trendy than proactivity these days.

What Focus is

Let the dictionary. Amazing how an ordinary book like this is instructive:

fo · cus
(Latin focus, -i, home, fireplace, hearth, home, flame, pyre)
n. pl. fo·cus·es or fo·ci (-sī′, -kī′)

    • The distinctness or clarity of an image rendered by an optical system.
    • The state of maximum distinctness or clarity of such an image: in focus; out of focus.
    • An apparatus used to adjust the focal length of an optical system in order to make an image distinct or clear: a camera with automatic focus.
    • A point at which rays of light or other radiation converge or from which they appear to diverge, as after refraction or reflection in an optical system: the focus of a lens. Also called focal point.
    • See focal length.
    • A center of interest or activity: “Precisely how diet affects E. coli in livestock is the focus of current research” (Cindy Engel).
    • Close or narrow attention; concentration: “He was forever taken aback by [New York’s] pervasive atmosphere of purposefulness—the tight focus of its drivers, the brisk intensity of its pedestrians” (Anne Tyler).
    • A condition in which something can be clearly apprehended or perceived: couldn’t get the problem into focus.

“Focus” , in The Free Dictionary

If it was not obvious that focus is just that, it is good to make it clear what focus is not :

  • Endeavour
  • Action
  • Diligence
  • Willpower
  • Common Sense
  • Caution
  • Empathy
  • Search

Focus is merely a concentration or point of convergence.

Why is that?

Here’s a left hand opinion. For those unaware of this term, I call left hand opinions those points of view that I believe and that will definitely get me into trouble with someone, either for not being politically correct or not being the most pretty thing to say. Anyway, here goes:

There are some companies and some employees schizophrenics. At the same time that they demand work on more than one thing at a time, they also demand someone to be focused.

Yeah. Focus has nothing to do with multitasking. When someone asks another to “focus on several important things”, they are in fact asking for more organization so that person can keep up with several parallel activities, without loosing performance.

Focus, therefore, does not mean anything besides increasing the workload on a particular activity to achieve a particular purpose that was previously established. That means if we ask for someone to focus on something, we want this person to reduce or even stop the work on everything else. If he/she is asked to give focus at everything, we made it clear we do not want them to focus on anything.

The Problems of Excessive Focus

Too much focus can lead people to make mistakes. Since the term we use to refer to “focus” comes from the “focus” of photography, let’s understand what happens “at the studio” that we can use.

Distortion

Self explanatory. Let’s another figure:

“CONHEÇA A PERSPECTIVA ALTERADA”

In other words, what you see when you are focused might not reflect reality. Another example:

Blurring

Waaaay too much focus. You don’t know anymore what you’ve been focusing on …

out_of_focus_3

Estimation Error

When focusing, he/she needs understanding. Else, it can lead to interpret things wrong… And to scale efforts and resources wrong… The size of the problems might be different…

Genius Puzzles and Riddles – Relative Sizes Optical Illusions

Alternatives to more focus…

Focus and dedication, for example, are not synonymous. A person can devote more and at the same time to focus less. For example, a Director can open his eyes to better observe the market may have a broader vision of a new way or a new strategy. If he was focused, he would perhaps concentrate efforts to keep everything running as it is.

BUT… There is always someone to say: “he focused his efforts to some broad observation of the market.”

NO.

There is no wide open focus. This is literally NOT FOCUSING. In place of more focus to achieve a task, you can:

  • Dedicate yourself more
  • Work faster
  • To study more
  • Rethinking a plan
  • Review some concept

Think of creative solutions, for example, is what I prefer. When something starts to request more and more energy (ie, “more focus”), it’s perhaps the time to rethink how it is being made how it could be done. I like to think that the best you have to do is always the same: think, strive and put intelligence in all that you do. That’s what will make a difference: by adding much more thoughts and ideas are put on something generates better and useful results.

Focus can be important sometimes. Sometimes it is not. Focus Think about it.

About rftafas 183 Articles
Ricardo F. Tafas Jr graduated in Electrical Engineering at UFRGS with focus on Digital Systems and achieved his Masters also in Electrical Engineering on Telecomunications Network Management. He also author of "Autodesenvolvimento para Desenvolvedores (Self-development for developers). Ricardo has +10 years experience on R&D Management and +13 years on Embedded Eystem Development. His interest lay on Applied Strategic HR, Innovation Management and Embedded Technology as a differentiator and also on High Performance Digital Systems and FPGAs. Actually, he is editor and writer for “Repositório” blog (http://161.35.234.217), editorial board member at Embarcados (https://embarcados.com.br) and he is Management and Innovation Specialist at Repo Dinâmica - Aceleradora de Produtos.
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