I know a lot of people find goal setting to be overrated. It’s often a struggle for some people and teams to set goals. However, unpacking those challenges is extremely valuable. Why?

• The challenges regularly unearth core misalignment within an organization
• A common challenge is that “leadership” is just going to change their mind. Addressing that disenfranchisement is incredibly important.
• Cross-team misalignment is also extremely common, and ignoring competing commitments is not a successful path forward.

Another side-effect of problematic goal-setting is to reduce the cadence at which goals are set. Some will set half annual goals, annual goals or even longer. A more frequent cadence allows teams and individuals to more easily adapt to change and adopt new findings. Yes, we can still have high level, company-wide annual goals as a company theme.

If you’re planning well enough to know exactly what you’ll be working on 9 months from now, you’re over-thinking it. Something you learn within the next 3-6 months should change the approach you take in month 9.

For an organization that’s running smoothly and continually learning, setting goals for a ~10 person team should take at most one hour per quarter. It can take more time to coordinate across teams.

Be quick. Be decisive. Learn quickly. Improve quickly.