The Two Brains (Vision & Focus) You Need to Succeed

Conflicting advice (create a big vision -- focus on small wins) can drive you crazy as a startup founder. (Originally posted at INC.COM December 18th, 2014)

Go big! Swing hard! Be fearless!

Reign in your vision! Create small wins! Iterate!

These two threads appear to run in stark contrast to each other yet every startup CEO hears this advice every day – some days from the same advisor. How do you rationalize these disparate thoughts and build a great company?

Turns out that you need to execute both (create a big vision and focus on small wins).? The real answer is you need both strategies even though they appear to be fighting against each other.? Let’s start with “going big”.

Obviously each and every one of us starts with a big vision.? I mean really, who starts out dreaming of two customers and $10k in revenue?? It is this initial seed that gets our heart pumping, enables us to recruit new talent, and convince investors to get on board.? I can’t even get out of bed without dreaming big.??

The big vision also serves a critical role when things get invariably tough. When the product is late, or a key employee quits to follow her own dream, it is the promise of what’s yet to come that keeps the startup machine humming along. It is imperative that startup founders use this tool sporadically as the tool has an expiration date. And used too often and your credibility wanes and employees begin to doubt you and the company’s prospects.

The first year of your company is clearly the hardest as you need to:

• Create basic legal documents,
• Build out your product or service,?
• Acquire the first set of customers,?
• Deliver on the product/customer promise,
• Find some space to operate in,
• Hire employees or contractors, and
• Eat, sleep, and breathe.

I give advice to execute in three months chunks as time spent on figuring out what you need a year from now is wasted effort.? You earn the right to get to the next three-month period by completing the tasks that you, the team, and your advisors determined were most critical.

Set a great strategy; create key tasks that support that strategy and you will create business momentum that will take you through year one and beyond.

To create a company culture that utilizes both types of brains, I recommend that your entire team create opportunities to play with each brain in separate activities.?

Think Big Activities include:

• Paint the Big Vision on a wall for all to see and comment on.
• One day offsite every three months to review where you are and where you want to go over the next three months. Offsite frees everyone from the day-to-day task of that other brain.? You will need to find ways to remove that before sitting down with the team.
• Continue to meet with others to share your dream and uncover new ideas and products outside of work.

Execute Small Activities include:

• Daily standup meetings with the team. The origin of this tool is from the agile world but it is easily applied to any team.? Our format is simple:Ten to Fifteen minute target meeting time,Everyone stands,No cell phones, computers or tabletsEach team lead shares three answers to these questions:What did you accomplish since our last standupWhat are your goals for the team until the next standupWhat if anything is standing in your way of meeting those goals
• Like the vision wall, identify a place where everyone can see what the three month tasks are and progress to those tasks.
• Reward team members for finishing those tasks.

Conflicting advice is there because at different times each piece is correct.? Your job is to work through these two brains in a way that keeps everyone humming along.

Think Big, Execute Small.