Concentrating is hard work. It is the parent of an unpleasant mental state called “cognitive strain.” Our preferred mental state is one of cognitive ease, or keeping the rational, analytical mind operating at a low amplitude. We like to keep this higher mental function in reserve so that it can attend to emergencies or crises as they arise.

Unfortunately, this is another example of how we are hard-wired to run in the wrong direction. We need to concentrate, to focus for days, weeks and sometimes months, to accomplish two vital tasks: First, discover what is the single most important thing in my business that I need to be concentrating on and then, second, concentrating on it.

Here is an illustration of what I am trying to say. When Alan Mulally became the CEO of Ford he inherited and unfocused mess of an organization. Before he arrived, during a time when Ford was profitable, it had gone on a luxury-car buying binge. It bought Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo, a fine assortment of ailing brands. Ford itself was an ailing brand, but now it was sure to become sicker much faster because vital capital and engineering talent were being siphoned away to deal with problems beyond Ford’s resources to solve.

So what did Mulally do? After studying the problem he came upon the one most important priority, the thing he would concentrate all of the companies energies on: Fixing Ford. He sold all of the luxury brands, closed down Mercury, and even paid little attention to Lincoln. Ford went from $30.1 bn in losses in 2006-2008, to $29.5 bn in gains from 2009-2012.

A part of every problem solving approach should be this process of simplifying the problem, discovering what the most important issue is, and then focusing on it with all available energy. As Ford shows, it can lead to quantum leaps in productivity and revenue growth.