Planning for business often fails for the same reason that new years resolutions fail – the work to transform an inspirational goal, into practical, specific steps is missed.
Let’s take a common resolution as an example “this year. I am going to get healthy.”
It’s an excellent resolution, grounded in ensuring that the person who is making it is given the best foundation for everything else they want to do in their life.
What is missing is precisely what actions are going to take place to make this change, when these actions are going to happen, and how we will know if we are on the path to success.
One tool that can support this is the goal-setting framework of OKR’s – Objectives and Key Results.
Initially developed by Andy Grove at intel OKR’s ensure that any objective is supported by specific and measurable actions, which can be actioned and tracked.
Let’s take our new year’s resolution as an example:
Objective: Get Healthy
What specific measurements can we use to track the success of this objective?
Key Results:
Join a gym by the 3rd January and go for an hour three times a week
Eat 5 + fruit and vegetables every day
Get 8 hours of sleep every night
Lose 10kg by the end of July
Now you know exactly what you need to do to be successful in achieving your goal, and will be able to track where you need to focus your time.
So the next time you think “I need to increase our sales” stop and take the time to work our the key results you need to work on to meet this goal.
What to know more about creating smart goals for your business, and the tools to help you follow through on them? Get in touch for a no-obligation chat.
Want to learn how to run your business better? Come along to this 4 hour workshop in Blenheim and kickstart your business for 2020.
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