The Biggest Risk You Run By Focusing On Just One Thing

In his thoughtful article, Why ‘a thousand projects on your plate’ is actually a good thing, Dave Schools lists 8 compelling reasons why it’s good to have a lot of projects going at once. He contrasts this approach with the risks of focusing on just one.

Here’s another reason: Putting all your efforts into one project to the exclusion of others may actually put that one project in jeopardy! This is why:

1. Your team may be less inclined to heed or report warning signs, having got the message that their manager “wants this one badly.”
2. You may not be as sensitive to legitimate criticism that could yield helpful learnings.
3. You could miss opportunities to improve, enhance, scale it back or otherwise modify it.
4. You may not connect changes in the environment to the continued viability of your project.
5. The project may become so closely identified with one person that it invites attacks by others as a “pet.”
6. You could spend valuable time going to to extreme lengths defending it.
7. Your processes may not be as dependable as they would be if you were field-testing them over multiple projects.

There are times when you’ll have to narrow your focus to meet a deadline and put everything else on hold temporarily. But keeping several initiatives going will keep you and your team fresh and receptive to new ideas and help develop the agility you’ll need to respond to new information that can affect any or all of them.