I got challenged recently by one of the participants on my Strategic Thinker Development Programme.
I love having switched-on people along for the ride. They question, consider and test to see how what I'm teaching them fits into their reality. As a result, their learning is accelerated, and so is that of others around them.
What did they question?
Why we spent a whole lot of time working on what were, for most of the group, long wordy goals, only to later start stripping them back to their very minimalist essence.
Fair enough, yes we had done that. I explained that it was all part of the learning journey. What often happens is people include everything in their goal, but I don't tell them that they have too much in there until I give them a place to put all those other things.
I'll give you an example… someone might have a goal to produce a data source and framework that governs decision-making on L&D spend in a way that creates good return on investment. Sounds good! For now.
All the things mentioned in there are there for very good reason. They're not wrong, but if we really boil down the essence of the goal - it is to create a good return on investment of the L&D spend. How we go about that - using data sources and frameworks to inform decision-making, is not part of the goal. These things are just examples (that the goal-setter has already subconsciously identified) of some of the aspects of the solution to creating a return on investment. So once we know what to do with the 'how' parts, we can get them out of our goal wording, and we have much greater clarity.
Goal clarity is one of the most under-rated and under-leveraged ideas I know of. There is huge power in having goal clarity, yet so often goals are poorly formulated or not even given any consideration.
Here's what can go wrong:
Goals are unstated and unidentified.
Goals are identified but unclear.
Goals are confused with strategies (sounds weird, but I see it all the time).
Goals are confused with the hurdles, obstacles, opportunities or challenges that must be exploited/overcome in order to succeed.
Goals are confused with problem statements or observations of symptoms.
There are too many, or conflicting goals.
We are not honest about what our goals really are, or on the same page with others.
Goals are at the wrong level of specificity to be useful (so high that they are really a purpose or vision, or too low that they hem us in and don't achieve anything meaningful).
Goals are inflexible when they need to be adapted.
They are the wrong goals don't take account of the realities of the context.
That's quite a list, right?! If there is one thing that people who work with me walk away with, it is an appreciation for the centrality and importance of the goal.
Next time you have a problem to solve, rather than assuming you know what the goals is - ask yourself, what am I actually trying to achieve? What outcome to I want to end up with? You can use some of the questions above to check your goal clarity.
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