Make your goals practical with the goal waterfall
Everyone knows the feeling: you resolve to do something, you really want to do it, but somehow it just never happens. We often refer to this as intrinsic motivation . If you are motivated enough, surely it will happen automatically? We see daily with our clients that this is not true. If only it were that easy… Significantly more is required.
In the highly readable book *The Four Disciplines of Execution* by Sean Covey et al., it is subtly noted that setting goals is not the biggest problem. Most organizations are capable of that. Planning is extensively covered and practiced in MBA programs. The problem is: how do you ensure those goals are actually achieved? The average professional or manager knows significantly less about that.
The biggest enemy of achieving goals is what Covey and others call the daily whirlwind. So much pressure is put on most professionals that there's no time left for all those wonderful and meaningful goals. For many professionals, the client automatically takes priority, leaving little time to improve their own work.
The effect of the whirlwind is often even greater in teams than in individuals. Because if ten people agree to do something, there are always a few who get blown off track by the whirlwind along the way.
A tool we like to use to help teams and individuals achieve their goals is what we call the goal waterfall . The idea behind it is to link important and less concrete goals to very concrete and easily plannable and executable actions. You can download an example here so you can create one for yourself or your team.
Are you familiar with Simon Sinek's TED talk "Start with Why"? A waterfall of goals only makes sense if there's a genuine motivation behind it. What makes you or your team happy? Another way to look at this is using Bateson's logical levels. What is your deepest core?
Years of experience and research show that most people can remember a maximum of three main goals. Many organizations we visit have more. It's always interesting to test which senior management team knows all the strategic goals for the coming period by heart. With more than three goals, it's very rare to succeed. And if even the leaders can't recite all the goals by heart, how likely do you think it is that there's enough energy to achieve them all?
On the left side of the waterfall of goals are the main goals. Next, you determine all the activities you want to undertake over the next twelve months to achieve these main goals. From all these activities, you choose the focus points for the next three months. This doesn't mean you can't work on the other activities; it does mean you agree with yourself that the focus points shouldn't fall off track in the coming quarter. Next, you make these focus points even more concrete. And you develop these into actions that are completely SMART: what exactly will you do in the coming week to achieve your focus points?
A simple check-up question to ask when you or your team are looking at the waterfall of goals: how likely is it that we'll actually achieve this? If the probability is below 85 percent, you still have work to do. Which aspects energize people, and which don't?
You're implementing a waterfall of goals over a longer period. Checking in once a year to see if you're achieving the goals isn't very helpful. You can only conclude that you've succeeded or not. You'll need to schedule more frequent check-ins. Because many people don't get much energy from reviewing to-do lists and reprimanding those who haven't taken action, we suggest using the 3Cs during progress reviews.
Did you choose the right actions? Would it perhaps be better to choose not to do something?
Help each other make and implement SMART actions
Monitor whether you can find time to complete the actions. If not, return to a previous C, or move on to Identifying What Is.
- When listing your main goals, include why they are important to you.
- Use a mind map to translate your goals into SMART actions.
- When planning an action on the right side, consider: what is the next action you can take?
- Only having a goal and not knowing why.
- Too little focus, too many goals.
- Do not elaborate concretely.
- Separate Thinking and Doing.
Some people keep thinking and don't get around to doing enough.
Some people are so busy doing that they forget why.
This article was written by Jan Willem van den Brink and Maarten van Os from DreamfactoryIt's based on a chapter from our book Client Satisfied – From content expert to advisory partner.
If you wish to use it, we would greatly appreciate attribution.
Want to know more about this topic or how we can help your organization? Email or call us at 0348-741670.