What could I write about goals that you couldn’t easily find out anywhere else? Probably nothing.
TL,DR: Look up Norman Doors and spend the rest of 2023 thinking about that.
Without clear goals, effort can look a lot like success.
If you’ve ever been in a workshop with me, it’s likely you’ve seen me turn to the most senior person in the room, and entirely out of the blue ask a blunt question like: “why does your team exist?”
It’s not a strategy I’d necessarily recommend. It’s just how my brain works. We might be exploring your new Onboarding programme, and suddenly I want to know why it matters. And why it matters to you.
Clear goals. Otherwise it’s just effort. And yes, I know you’re already getting rewarded for effort. It’s up to you if you want more. It’s ok if you don’t: the system doesn’t like people who challenge the status quo.
But if you happen to be like me, and you want more than just delivering a list of projects in a year to get your bonus, you need to go right back to the beginning.
Why does your team exist?
Take a moment and think about it. Can you answer it easily, or confidently? And without business bs language?
If you can’t answer that question, stop for a moment and consider all the projects you’re working on. What value can you possibly be adding if you can’t articulate your team’s reason for existence?
Clear goals start right there. What does your L&D team do that’s helping the business? It might be many things, or even just one. Unless you know what it is, and you believe in it, I’d recommend going back & looking at that video of Norman Doors again. Without a reason to exist, we’re just a confusing door to other people in the business.
Alignment
Does this need explaining…? Find out what your business goals are. If your activities are not aligned to that, or aimed at adding value where it needs support, then you might need to rethink your team’s existence.
Shifting Perspectives
Two things can look completely different when you look at them a different way. That’s why I ask obtuse, existential questions in workshops. To zoom in, and zoom out. Tim Brown from Ideo talks about shifting perspectives, and I absolutely recommend looking up some interviews with him. so sure, shifting perspectives is great for problem solving, like a specific project.
Why does it matter for goals? I know from experience that what I think is the goal, probably isn’t the goal. A great exercise to test your thinking is to zoom way out - to business goals, to competitors, to imagining the economy in 10 years…. the options are endless - and then zooming way in to consider every moment of the people experience in your company.
Goals = people experience
goals matter because it means you can focus on what matters, the people you work with. Massive goals are fun, and they can be broken down into smaller goals. And those goals can be tracked. When you know progress, failure becomes something to learn from, and milestones become things you can celebrate.
Figure out why your team exists, how it helps the business & how it helps the people in the business. Aim big, break it into little milestones and have fun doing little rituals to celebrate progress.