How many times have you seen corporate goals or objectives rolled out to an organization in a company-wide meeting? At first, the employees are all fired up, they clap exuberantly, and then they forget about them within 24 hours!
In another situation, the goals are presented in a vaguely worded poster attached to a company wide email. The employees speed read the email and promptly “file” it to the deleted bin . . . along with any memory of the goals.
Not setting business goals properly is a big mistake that renders them almost useless! Furthermore, when you do not properly communicate them, no matter how well you define them, they are doomed to failure!
I have seen this quite a few times over my career . . . The corporate poster gets rolled out with tons of flashy graphics, bullet points and 9-point font. It is an amazing work of art but there is no organizational buy-in and no accountability. In fact, the goals are usually “dumbed” down so that they look and sound good on the poster but they really mean nothing.
Goals Roadmap
This is where the Goals Roadmap comes in.
This template clearly communicates the business goals and objectives to the whole organization in a graphical way that is simple yet powerful. You can easily print it on a single piece of paper, carry it in a notebook, or pin it to cubicle wall.
Note that I did not design this tool to help with setting goals, I designed it to keep the organization focused and aligned around the goals.
Review this article for information on setting SMART goals.
What is the Goals Roadmap?
This roadmap is a simple timeline. Essentially, you take each of your business goals and all of their components or objectives and map them onto a timeline.
The timeline shown in the diagram below is for a fiscal year that starts in January. You can easily adjust this for any fiscal calendar. The Goal #1 shown in the template has nine objectives that need to be achieved before the goal is complete. Similarly, Goal #2 has five objectives, Goal #3 has six objectives and Goal #4 has two objectives.
Graphical, simple, easy to understand, easy to progress and easy to communicate!
Note that it is best to incorporate each of the SMART goal elements in the diagram including the name of the person responsible for each.
Call to Action
Ensure that you publish the goals for your organization clearly, concisely and continuously. Do not fall into the trap of providing a poster with awesome graphics but vague and useless wording! Download the Goals Roadmap template located in the “Goals, Objectives and Outcomes” section under the Business Tools tab at www.thinkingbusinessblog.com
What are your corporate goals for the year? Are they in the SMART format? Do the business leaders communicate them clearly and constantly to the organization? What are you using to track progress?
“Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: NOW” Dennis Waitley
Do you have a favorite goal setting and communication tool? Leave a comment below and let us know!
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