I worked with a manager once who explained his rationale behind goal-setting:
Without goals, no one will do anything! There's no accountability on the team. People don't take their commitments seriously. They give me silly excuses. Whenever I turn around, they are chatting on Slack or on Reddit. I'm not sure what they do all day. It feels like we are going in circles. Without goals, it will be impossible to keep score, and if I need to manage someone out, it will be hard! So yes, goals are important!
You see the issue here, I'm sure.
The team wasn't stupid. They could sense the manager's attitude. The situation wasn't safe, and the situation wasn't motivating. They didn't feel supported—a self-perpetuating unhealthy loop. No amount of RACI, SMART, INVEST, OKRs, "sprint commitments", OGSM, or [fifty other frameworks] could help them.
I manage a team. I recently found myself sensing that more discipline around goals would help us. But I am also fully aware of all the crappy reasons teams set goals. So I put together this little list to make sure they could hold me accountable for using goals in a healthy way.
What our approach to goal setting should do:
Encourage sustainability. Less crunch-time
Focus our efforts. Seek higher leverage (for equal or less effort)
Promote aligned autonomy
Inspire conversations about what is important
Sense of flow and regular progress
Support effective/meaningful retrospectives (and taking action)
Work small and think big. A nudge to work frugally
Healthy feedback loops. Learning
Frequent "integration" of ideas, assumptions, code, etc.
An early signal to help rebalance our efforts/approach
Help us set and reset expectations with other teams
What our approach to goal setting shouldn't do:
Unsustainable work practices
Last minute heroics. Success theater
Cut corners (in non strategic, harmful ways)
Reduce psychological safety
Restrict creative problem solving
Discourage risk taking and adapting our approach
Discourage joint ownership and collaboration
Obscure/replace our real goal (value to customers)
Encourage big batches of work, Tetris, and scope creep
"Hoarding projects" and only working in your comfort zone
The real test is in what happens when team members don't achieve their goals. Can team members get real and say (out loud):
This was too challenging. I need help
or
I'm cooked. The pandemic is overwhelming my family
or
We don't have the right tools and process here. I did my best and hit roadblock after roadblock
or
We need to rethink how we collaborate here
or even...
I respect your work Dan, but you overpowered the conversation leaving a situation where only you could do the work. We wanted to help. You didn't let us
If they can get real, then that’s a good sign you are moving in the right direction. Goals are helping.
This week's question. How can you make sure your goal setting framework is working for you, instead of against you?
Amen to the "goals should do . . . " list. I've found success with goals when I hold quarterly planning and review sessions, and regular (no less frequent than every 2 weeks) 1-1s. And those 1-1s use as their agenda the current quarter's goals. I've put goals into 3 categories: 1) Things I plan to get done; 2) Things I plan to learn or getter better at (knowledge and skills); and, 3) People I plan to work with (create or build a relationship). In the planning session at the start of a quarter, we do a retrospective on the past quarter and then set goals for the next quarter with a healthy dose of realistic expectations. As a manager, I make the commitment to support my direct reports to accomplish the plan we create and hold myself accountable not to do things that would get in the way of their success.