Are you part of the 64% of us who abandon their New Year’s Resolution within a month? Or have you ever sat in a meeting where someone told you to set goals? And that they had to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART)? We all love the idea of goal setting but the process of then achieving those goals can be more complex.
Here at Kinetic, we love talking about goals because we think the workplace should be determined by far more than KPIs or sales figures. We once met with a client who was concerned that the marketing team wasn’t as motivated as the sales people, because the nature of their work wasn’t able to be quantified as clearly. For us then to suggest to the client they should also consider the overall health of their organisation to be determined by the people skills of the employees as much as the numbers and turnover was a big challenge to their thinking.
We believe in goals. But we believe more strongly in roadmaps. Our background is in elite sport, where the goals are so blindingly obvious: to win the World Cup. To get the club promoted. To win Olympic gold. To qualify for the next Paralympics. These are all as obvious as the sun in the sky.
But many thousands of athletes will have these goals: the most important thing is to agree the strategy to get there. It’s not the destination that needs team agreement, it’s the route to get there. At Kinetic we’re interested in the strategy goals. The how, the why, the what if, the who. The day-to-day operation of the business via its most important asset: people.
How do we set ‘people goals’? Think about performing a cultural health check. How robust is your company culture? How many lines of communication exist between colleagues? Could the most junior intern ever challenge the most senior partner? Do different departments interact so there is 360 degree accountability? With a hybrid working world, do you organise virtual coffee breaks to check and challenge the wellbeing of employees at home? Is a growth mindset starting to pervade all internal meetings?
Goals will determine the ultimate success of an organisation: the quality of the product you manufacture, or the legal services you provide, or the robustness of your financial advice. Whatever the nature of your business, the bit that leaves the building and goes to the client has to be of the supremely highest quality. But the journey to get that product out of the building and to the client is in large part determined by the quality of your human interactions within your organisation.