Companies usually measure their performance against dozens of goals and metrics. But you can’t do everything at once. The challenge is getting people focused on the one thing that matters most right now. Moving in the right direction, it would eliminate a weakness (or capitalize on an opportunity) and improve financial results. You improve on that, and you win.

However, not every company clearly defines winning. A catalog of goals can pull the organization in multiple directions and stretch finite resources. Numerous goals can inherently conflict, work against each other, and have conflicting goals. For example, a cost reduction target may undermine an innovation target that requires significant investment.