Chip and Dan Heath analyze the ‘concreteness’ of ideas in their book, Made to Stick. The premise is essentially that there are certain key components that make an idea “stick” while other ideas die out.

One interesting analogy is that of constructing a jet. One company set out to have its employees construct a jet that could fly from San Fransisco to New York, non-stop, with X amount of fuel, and be able to land on a short runway at the airport. At the time, these were specifications unattainable by current aircraft. This gave the company a concrete vision to work for, and a goal in mind to drive innovation.

What if the task had been to “construct the best airplane in the world”? How would they drive innovation? How would they gauge success? Consider a goal of striving to be the best country in space exploration, or “putting a man on the moon.” Which goal will bring about a better outcome?

It’s not enough to strive for the best, you have to define specifically what being the best entails.