Focused improvement in Theory of Constraints is the ensemble of activities aimed at elevating the performance of any system, especially a business system, with respect to its goal by eliminating its constraints one by one and by not working on non-constraints.
The method to achieve focused improvement is the use of the five Thinking Processes.
Most of the popular performance improvement methods, such as TQM or reengineering, are not focused improvement methods, i.e. they do not distinguish working on the factors that limit a system's performance (constraints) — which brings immediate results, from working on non-constraints — which does not bring any results, only increases costs and distracts management's attention.
See also: Donella Meadows' twelve leverage points to intervene in a systemFamous quotes containing the words focused and/or improvement:
“It was your severed image that grew sweeter,
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“The American people owe it to themselves, and to the cause of free Government, to prove by their establishments for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge, that their political Institutions ... are as favorable to the intellectual and moral improvement of Man as they are conformable to his individual and social rights.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)