Greg McKeown’s Essentialism

ByMatt Walsh

Greg McKeown: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (2014, 10th Anniversary Edition 2024)

Strategic relevance: Essentialism addresses the most fundamental strategic challenge facing leaders today: making deliberate trade-offs. McKeown’s central thesis cuts through the delusion that we can “have it all” and do everything. Instead, he argues for the disciplined pursuit of less, systematically discerning what is absolutely essential and eliminating everything that isn’t. This isn’t a time-management technique. It’s a strategic framework for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then removing obstacles so essential activities have clear passage. While McKeown’s advice is intended for individuals, the concept translates perfectly to corporations and strategic prioritisation, helping organisations distinguish between the trivial many and the vital few. When I work with leadership teams on strategic choices, I adapt McKeown’s framework into a spectrum:

  • at one end sits the undisciplined pursuit of more (doing a bit of everything, feeling you have little choice, stretched too thin, busy but not productive, believing you can “have it all” with no trade-offs),
  • while at the other end lies the solution, the disciplined pursuit of less (strategic trade-offs, less popular choices with higher contribution, the narrow path less travelled, right things at the right time for the right reasons).

At their core an Essentialist is someone who is brilliant at “being very thoughtful and selective about the right few things, going strong on them rather than being stretched too thin”. The critical question becomes: How will we judge the “right things”? This forces the strategic conversation every executive team needs but often avoids.

Best for: CEOs and executive teams who struggle with strategic prioritisation and saying no. Leaders who feel overworked yet under-utilised, simultaneously busy and ineffective. Organisations suffering from what I call “worthy cause accumulation syndrome”, where well-intentioned commitments multiply until impact becomes diffused and negligible.

Personal angle: I’ve used my enterprise adaptation of McKeown’s framework extensively in facilitation work, particularly helping clients become more focused on their impact. The concept is unconventional while being simultaneously simple and compelling.  Too many organisations I work with have accumulated worthy causes, initiatives, and priorities until they’re working harder than ever while slipping on major strategies. The Essentialism approach provides the language and permission structure executives need to make the tough trade-offs they’ve been avoiding. It’s about achieving more by doing much less, which runs counter to every instinct in ambitious leaders. Yet when leadership teams genuinely embrace this discipline, their strategic clarity and execution capability transforms dramatically. The framework doesn’t tell you what’s essential for your organisation, but it provides the systematic approach to discover it yourselves.

Further listening:

Tim Ferriss Show #355: Greg McKeown – How to Master Essentialism (October 2019). https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-tim-ferriss-show/id863897795?i=1000427317473


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