Why you need to set more ambitious goals to actually drive change
You probably aren’t being ambitious enough when it comes to the goals that you are setting for transformative projects.
To be clear, I’m not talking about everyday objectives. Nor am I talking about your company’s budget, commitments you make to the Board, or the promises you make to customers. You want these goals to be very achievable, leaving you room for over-delivery.
I’m talking about those projects that will fundamentally change the way you and your team need to work and the internal goals you set for your team to achieve them. I’m talking about big, transformative projects.
These are the times where - counterintuitively - you actually need to set more ambitious goals for the team tasked with delivery. They should look something like this:
There are two fundamental reasons why this is important.
Reason #1: You need to create a buffer to account for added risk and the ‘good enough’ temptation
The first reason this is important is it builds in a buffer to reduce the risk of under-delivery at a time where you are definitely going to need a buffer.
It’s human nature to start to relax as you reach your goals.
If you don’t believe me, explain this:
On projects where any change is considered ground-breaking for the organization, that sense of accomplishment will start to creep in much earlier. Once the team starts to see change that they may not have expected to happen, they will be tempted to take their foot off the gas.
This means you need to set a target beyond what you have committed to deliver, so that this sense of accomplishment doesn’t kick-in until you have hit a point that you would consider a success.
If you are someone that is reading this thinking “my team is very goal-oriented, and we have metaphorical bladders of steel” kudos to you, but you should still be accounting for Murphy’s Law.
When you are breaking new ground, there are a ton of factors you may not anticipate or account for, which adds unknown risk to your efforts.
To account for ‘good enough’ and additional risk, you should set a slightly higher goal than is necessary with the anticipation that you will fall short, and still achieve what you have promised externally.
Reason #2: You will need increased pressure to overcome resistance
If you are a leader that has set a goal to fundamentally change your business, you need to be ready for your team’s level of excitement and support to be slightly lower than normal.
Why? Because people don’t want to change. Even if it is the exact same group of people you normally work with. Transformative projects often appeal to different people than the completion of day-to-day performance objectives.
To illustrate this point, take a normal distribution curve of typical human behaviour.
When you set out to accomplish everyday goals the culture is accustomed to, the people on your team that are excited and committed to achieving them are these folks:
However, when you set out to fundamentally change the way a business works, and this is reliant on your team changing how they operate, this is what your team looks like:
While it may look like business as usual around the office, when you’re making a transformative change you must be cognizant that you are not operating under the same rules that you were working with before.
That passionate team with metaphorical bladders of steel won’t be as consistent with hitting their brand new and unfamiliar targets, and the group of laggards that helped but never overachieved will suddenly become a force that actively pulls against the direction you are pushing.
What this means is that the ‘desired outcome’ you are targeting has even more weight added to it, making it much heavier than expected.
So, if you’re leading this group through this change, the amount of energy and pressure you need to apply needs to be raised significantly to balance the new load.
Keep this in mind the next time you’re about to undertake an initiative that will change the way you do business. As you are setting your goals, build in some buffer to account for the inevitable sense of ‘good enough’, the risk that comes with unknown territory, and the resistance you will likely encounter along the way.
Enjoyed the article? Share it with your network!
