QUOTE: On discerning what matters

April 22, 2009
miproconsulting
Blog

Something we discuss all the time when talking to our prospects and clients, as consultants often find themselves facing myriad information:

I learned back in the days when I was consulting that they give you more information than you could possibly read. So you needed to quickly step back and say, “What are the two or three things that really matter?” And I find in the world that people don’t really do that often.

—Greg Brenneman, chairman of CCMP Capital, in the NYT

It’s a skill that everyone says they have, but as Brenneman notes, few truly do.

Here’s the best way to do this: step back and ask yourself, “What am I really trying to solve here? What do I really need?” Absorb the tasks that are a means to that end, discard the rest.

It’s not necessarily an easy exercise, but the work invested at the beginning cuts away scads of chaff that would otherwise cloudy your project.

This skill is also great demarcation line between working smart versus working hard.

(Via Signal vs. Noise)