If You Don't Know Where You're Going, Any Road Will Take You There

George Harrison’s “Any Road” has been on heavy repeat on my Discman/iPod/iPhone since it was released in 2002.  It opens Brainwashed, his final album. It is my favorite track on that record. Before I plan out my year ahead, I like to write out one line from the song and paste it in plain sight: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”

That line sets the terms for my year. I write twenty-five goals, circle the five I will finish, and put the other twenty on an avoid-at-all-cost list. If the destination fits in one paragraph and the five fit on one page, we have a plan. Skip that step and you start a lot and finish almost nothing.

In practice, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there” is a test. If you, or your team, cannot state a clear destination in one paragraph, the plan is wishful thinking. I’ll often ask companies to choose a few clearly defined projects and release their minds from every other project until those few are complete. Ideas have a tendency to arrive like rain. Projects shouldn’t become mud because of that.

A short list gives people room to breathe and room to focus.

We’ve known this a long time. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice asks the Cheshire Cat which way she ought to go. The Cat asks where she wants to get to. She says she does not much care. He tells her it does not much matter which way she goes then. Say (and clearly picture) where you want to end up, and the next step gets clear. Don’t take any off-ramps. The rest can wait.

Steve Jobs explained focus in terms of refusal: “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 the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”

Former Apple Senior Vice President of industrial design, Jony Ive,  described the cadence Jobs required to make that real: “This sounds really simplistic but it still shocks me how few people actually practice this.” Focus is not something you aspire to. “You don’t decide on Monday ‘I’m going to be focused.’ It’s an every minute ‘Why are we talking about that?’ This is what we are working on.” Jobs would ask him how many things he had said no to. Saying no to something you never wanted to do in the first place did not count. “What focus means is saying no to something that with every bone in your body you think is a phenomenal idea, you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you are focusing on something else.”

Warren Buffett draws the line cleanly:  “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” Start with a sheet of paper and write down twenty five goals across your life and work. Circle the five that would affect the biggest outcomes for you in the next year. The remaining twenty become your avoid-at-all-cost list. Those twenty are distractions. They look like progress and feel like work, yet they drain momentum from what you decided to focus on. Keep the list where you will see it. Treat it like a contract with yourself.

You can scale the same exercise to a company. Put the organization’s promises, pet projects, and experiments on one page. Force agreement on a true five. Translate each one into a named project with a clear owner, a budget, and an end state a stranger to the business could recognize. Publish completion dates where others can see them. Publish the avoid list and praise anyone who cites it when a meeting drifts. When a bright idea arrives, ask the price in plain terms. Which current project slows? Which team changes? Which promise disappears?

People sometimes reach for volume as a hedge against uncertainty. The result is a museum of half-starts. Pick a place worth going to, name the few projects that will take you there. Hold attention on those projects until they arrive at the agreed upon destination.

The work week will still get loud. Keep the road short and clear.

I keep Harrison's “Any Road” in heavy rotation. It reminds me to choose a destination first, then walk the road that gets me there.. A team will take a road either way. Choose one on purpose, write it down, and let it guide them. When people can explain the destination (sometimes it’s what a successful project would look like, sometimes it’s the vision of what success looks like for the company) in a paragraph (or less; hopefully less), the rest gets easier. The rain of ideas is still a reservoir, but you focus on the projects you set out to finish. Then, once satisfied with the outcome,  choose the next road with the same care, and you walk towards the destination.