Part 3: Creating organizational focus

One of the most common solutions to the dependency problem in an organization is having teams work on different things and releasing them independently. It sounds excellent, but the risk is that you spread your organization thin, reduce collaboration, and have competing priorities.

Lack of alignment is a lack of focus

The company risks not going anywhere without a common goal for the teams. At least not intentionally.

How to create alignment

Alignment across self-organizing teams is usually created by:

• Sharing goals and objectives
• Sharing priorities
• Sharing rhythm

Sharing goals also means sharing priorities. If you also share a planning rhythm (e.g., weekly, monthly, or quarterly), the teams can influence each other’s plans for smoother execution.

Note that teams that work towards the same goals and objectives don’t do the same things. Every team has a mission and purpose to fulfill, and what they deliver depends on that. Given their mission and purpose, they figure out the answer to the question: “What should we do to contribute to our common goal/objective?”

In the example above, the development, marketing, sales, and customer service teams all do different things to reach the common goal and objectives. For example, to reduce churn to 7%, the development team might add a desired feature, marketing works on strengthening the brand, sales introduces a better price model, and customer service implements a win-back team to reclaim lost customers.

Focusing the organization

Here are five areas to help create organizational focus:

1. Have strategic goals
2. Limit the number of goals
3. Goals should create a direction
4. Select a strategy
5. Rank your objectives
6. Limit the organizational WIP

Have strategic goals

It is uncommon for mature companies to lack strategic goals, but it is very common for startups. Startups focus on getting their product idea out there, chasing cash flow and investors, and doing almost anything to achieve that. They tend to operate in an opportunistic and short-sighted way.

Luckily, startups are usually small, so organizational focus can easily be achieved across a handful of employees. However, when they scale up, strategic goals become essential for many reasons.

Limit the number of goals

The record number of strategic goals I have encountered at the top level in a company is 12(!). It’s almost impossible to pursue and reach all of them. In my experience, most companies I have worked with settle on two to three strategic goals that matter.

Too many goals unfocus the organization. It becomes up to every team to choose which one they think is the most important one to pursue.

Having a large number of strategic goals is often a clear sign that the leadership team is struggling to agree on what truly matters. By allowing many strategic goals, they avoid conflicts and discussions that are important to have.

Goals should create a direction

Having a number alone (a KPI) to achieve as a goal doesn’t provide a clear direction, opening up different interpretations of how to meet the target.

One company in the payment segment aimed to increase its customer base by X%. That was the KPI. It sounds straightforward enough, but a significant misalignment was revealed when the sales organization pursued new customers in the hospitality segment while the product development department built features for the retail segment. The salespeople never received the features they needed to meet their targets, and the new features that were developed were never used to attract more retailers.

Another company providing a service over the internet focused on reaching a specific number of daily active users (DAU). The CEO communicated this number clearly and repeatedly, but it was just a number to reach among several other KPIs. Until someone asked why this DAU number was so important? The answer was swift: “So we can beat competitor A!!”. That made a difference. All the numbers to target now had a context and purpose, giving the company a direction and focus.

A goal (and an objective) describes a future state, a market position, a capability we don’t currently have, or something else necessary for the company to thrive. The metrics (KPIs) only indicate whether we are moving in the desired direction.

This is why OKRs (objectives and key results) are popular nowadays. The Objective part describes in words what we are striving for and why, while the key result part explains how we can measure our progress in that direction.

The trouble with OKRs is that they are just goals. To provide focus and drive, you need to decide what really matters; in short, you need a strategy.

Select a strategy

Strategic goals can’t usually be achieved in one go. Therefore, it’s helpful to break them down into objectives that eventually lead to the goal.

Your strategy can be described as the sequence of objectives you choose and the order in which they are selected. An objective in this sense is something achievable within a quarter to a year.

Many companies communicate internally only the strategic goals with emphasis and leave out the common path to get there. Although all parts of the company strive for the same ultimate goal, they plan different routes and risk having conflicting objectives along the way.

Rank your objectives

Having more than one strategic goal is usual, and having multiple objectives (as a result of your strategies) is equally expected.

With limited resources (number of teams), it’s helpful to signal which objectives are in focus every quarter. This can be done with a priority list or, my preferred method, a timeline.

In the example above, the strategic goals are supported by the objectives. The timeline describes which objectives are in focus at any given time. This sequence can form the backbone of a roadmap based on objectives rather than deliveries.

Having a limited number of objectives in focus at any given time makes it easier for teams, as they are not constantly spread thin on goals and objectives. This also helps collaboration, as their neighboring teams share the same priorities.

Limit the organizational WIP

Limiting the number of strategic goals and focusing on only a few objectives at a time should prevent having too many initiatives with deliveries going on simultaneously.

If you make your initiatives (deliveries) small enough, you don’t have to run them in parallel, and you can thereby accelerate your return on investment (ROI).

Imagine this scenario: you have one team and three initiatives to deliver. If the team works on one initiative full-time, it will take the team one month to build it.

Compare the two situations: the team works on all three initiatives in parallel vs. the team working on one at a time.

Which option will earn you the most money and provide the biggest customer satisfaction?

The green curve represents time-to-value optimization, while the red curve represents resource optimization (always have some initiative to work on).

In the first case, the first customer will receive initiative A after one month, and no customer will have to wait longer for their delivery than in the second case. Starting several initiatives early doesn’t automatically mean finishing early.

The example above is a simplified case, but it illustrates that having too many initiatives in flight will hurt earnings, customer satisfaction, and lead time (to value).

Summary

Having alignment is the foundation for focusing an organization on the most important things for the business. Alignment is built through:

• Shared goals and priorities
• Shared planning rhythms (e.g., weekly, monthly)
• Each team contributes differently based on its mission

To maintain and further increase organizational focus, organizations should:

1. Have Strategic Goals – Essential, especially for growing startups.
2. Limit the Number of Strategic Goals – Too many dilute focus; 2–3 is optimal.
3. Ensure Goals Create Direction – Goals should describe a desired future, not just KPIs.
4. Select a Strategy – Break goals into prioritized, time-bound objectives.
5. Rank Objectives – Use timelines or priority lists to highlight what matters now.
6. Limit Organizational Work in Progress (WIP) – Too many simultaneous initiatives delay outcomes and reduce ROI.

Focusing on fewer, strategically aligned goals and limiting active initiatives improves collaboration, speeds up delivery, and boosts customer satisfaction.

---

This is the third part of a blog series about speeding up your organization. Previously published parts are:

• Intro, Blog Series: What makes your organization slow and how to fix it
• Part 1: Don’t start at the wrong end
• Part 2: Dependencies kill flow