The Truth About Better Decision-Making (Collection), 2/e

Truth 37. Focusing on what’s right can help solve what’s wrong

When you face a mandate for change within your department or company, you can choose two different approaches: You can obsess on the problem until you’re limply depleted of ideas, or you can go the other way and obsess about what’s going well and allow the power of positive focus to drive a constructive plan for the transformation you need.

Metaphysical theorists will tell you that whatever you focus on is the thing that expands. For a more managerial perspective, the late Peter Drucker, widely considered to be the founding father of the study of management, put it this way: “Leading change is about aligning people’s strengths so that their weaknesses become irrelevant.” Either way, ...