365QOD- Day1298

Focus

"Focus is a noun and a verb"- title of a U99.com story

As the article teaches,

"Focus as a Noun. When people speak of focus they usually mean having a single goal. It is a static thing, a thing you have…"

In other words, it is the singular goal that we are reaching towards.  It is the ultimate state we are trying to reach.  One reached, our focus has been reached. 

"Focus as a Verb. Focus is not just something you have it is also something you  do. This type of focus is not static; it is an intense, dynamic, ongoing, iterative  process."

The verb definition teaches us that to reach the goal we must act.  The action must be persistent.  It must intense. It can not end until we reach our goal.  

Notice that the title indicates that we need both by the use of "and".  We must have a goal and take persistent and intense actions towards it.  Otherwise we are not focused.

Which one is more important?

"The answer is to develop and value both types of focus. Professor Henry Mintzberg taught that there are two sources of strategy: deliberate  strategy, where leaders develop a clear vision and map this to long,  medium and short term goals (focus as a noun) and emergent strategy, where people respond to unanticipated problems and opportunities (focus as a verb). It is the disciplined pursuit of both of these approaches that  best enables us to focus on what is essential. We can plot this on a two by two to see what is at stake."

You can visualize this as:

Today's question is:

"Do you have focus and focus?"