The 20/80 Rule For Setting Great Goals
Goals Don’t Generate Growth
Redefine Goals. Generate Action Plans that Accelerate Growth
I have always struggled with goals. Maybe it’s just me (probably not), or that I have an important memo about goals, but they have always felt lofty and untethered. So, I got curious. The definition of Goal - according to Dictionary.com is “A goal is an objective or target that someone is trying to reach or achieve.” - Yip, that’s my experience of a goal, and while useful, it fell apart at the action stage.
Then I came across the idea that there are types of goals - well dah, that makes sense if you stop and think about it.
There are three types of goals- process, performance, and outcome goals.
Process goals are specific actions or ‘processes’ of performing. For example, aiming to study for 2 hours after dinner every day . Process goals are 100% controllable by the individual.
Performance goals are based on personal standard. For example, aiming to achieve a 3.5 GPA. Personal goals are mostly controllable.
Outcome goals are based on winning. For a college student, this could look like landing a job in your field or landing job at a particular place of employment you wanted. Outcome goals are very difficult to control because of other outside influences.
Again, this is all great. But there is still something missing for me. Probably because I’m an action girl and I need a well mapped plan to stay on track.
Then about three years ago when I read James Clear’s Atomic Habits I came across this gem.
"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
James Clear - Atomic Habits
and it all fell into place.
Often opportunities are lost when we focus on the wrong goal or diminish the potency of a goal by having a goal that is too big.
Here are three problems with goals as identified by James Clear in his book atomic habits, plus an additional two that I have added. I got very excited when I read the three in Atomic Habits. They certainly resonated with my resistance to goals and goal setting.
I can hear some of you thinking, well it might be more about the quality of your goals… to that I would say, yes maybe and I still believe James makes a powerful point.
Winners and losers have the same goals.
Goal setting suffers from a severe case of survivorship bias. We concentrate on the people who end up winning—the survivors—and mistakenly assume that ambitious goals led to their success while overlooking all the people who had the same objective but didn't succeed.
Achieving a goal is only a momentary change
There is no so what, now what element to goals.
When you solve problems at the results level, you only solve them temporarily. However, you need to solve problems at the systems level to improve for good. First, fix the inputs, and the outputs will fix themselves.
Goals restrict your happiness.
Goals create an "either-or" conflict: either you achieve your goal and are successful, or you fail and are a disappointment. Instead, you mentally box yourself into a narrow version of happiness. This is misguided.
Goals are at odds with long-term progress
When all your hard work focuses on a particular goal, what is left to push you forward after achieving it? This is why many people find themselves reverting to their old habits after accomplishing a goal.
Goals Generate Overwhelm.
The focus on the end game distracts from the many smaller steps needed to achieve the goal. Often we return to the goal and become overwhelmed by the enormity of the things that need to happen to achieve it, whether it is a goal around academic achievement or a weight loss goal. When we focus on the big picture, we lose sight of the small picture steps that create the big picture. This is very demotivating and disempowering. Success is needed to stay energised. Staying focused on the small steps and celebrating those small wins is what keeps us going when it gets tough. Activates intrinsic motivation and builds resilience.
At the beginning of every year - as a tutor teacher - we would sit down with each student individually and help them set goals for the year. These macro goals follow the very sage advice of Stephen Covey, Who coined the phase - begin with the end in mind in his book, the seven habits of highly effective people. The problem sits with the how question.
The girls would always give me a superb goal. "to increase the number of excellences I achieve this year" or "to gain an excellence endorsement for the year". Don't get me wrong; these are great goals.
When you ask, "how do you plan to achieve that goal? "Then, "what will you do differently?" the wheels begin to fall off, and the goal loses its potency.
Answers to the "how" question always fell in the category of doing more of the same, harder, faster, and more focused.
The takeaway from this: To borrow from Marshall Goldsmith's great book, What Got You Here—the success and accomplishments you have achieved up until now—will not get you there. (Where you want to go in the future.)
We needed to get granular. To unpack it down into steps. To create an action plan that we came back to regularly to see how things were going and follow the process of Review, Reaffirmation, Regroup, Revalue, Retarget, Resource and Relaunch.
7 steps for keeping up momentum
Repurposed from Clutterbuck, David. Coaching the Team at Work 2
"The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It's not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, your commitment to the process will determine your progress."
James Clear - Atomic Habits
Ahhh, yes, yes and yes. And this is what I love about Coaching Intelligence; it focuses on the systems that achieve the goal. The action plan of micro steps that create the path to success. Step by step, one focal moment at a time.
So we need to design spectacular systems, and an action plan is a system.
What are goals and action plans all about?
In a word, Change—a behaviour change.
Making a change to something you have always done. Actioning something you have just learnt, taking a step towards a new normal.
And to be honest, always when we embark on change, the intent is for sustainable change. Nobody wants to put energy into something only to keep working on making that change. What sustainable change boils down to is habits.
Goal - identify what we want to change and what it will look like when we get there.
Action plan - make a step-by-step plan for getting there. Focus on one important thing at a time.
Where we often go wrong is we try and focus on too many changes at once. An action plan is identifying the micro steps, what the first thing you need to do is and what is the first thing you will do to put action around it.
Action Plans Are The System For Change. Goals Are The Target You Aim For.
Imagine you are shooting an arrow at a target.
The target is the goal - where is it positioned? how far away is it located? The quality of the arrow is the action plan - what material is it made of, how accurate is the design, is the shaft straight, are the multiple fin-like stabilizers called fletchings mounted correctly, what is the weight of the arrowhead.
The technique to shoot the arrow, how you stand, how you hold the bow, and the amount you pull back on the bow is the execution of the action plan.
All are important, and all are not equal in their complexity.
More thought and effort must go into the action plan and its execution than setting the target. That’s 20% on goal setting and 80% on action planning and execution.
A little bit about SMART GOALS
One could argue that a smart goal is a form of an action plan. Smart goals contain elements of an action plan. A timeline, a measure and an action. However, I still find smart goals to be ambiguous. Why? They still tend to be too big. They are still too macro. To take effective action, we need to get micro. Get granular.
The challenge with smart goals is keeping them small. Unfortunately, we still tend to blow it out too big, and the focus sits around the outcome rather than the action needed to achieve it.
A system for change that works keeps the focus micro rather than macro.
When I coach leaders and principals, I help my clients to generate a macro goal at the beginning of our coaching partnership. This goal begins with the end in mind and outlines where the client wants to get to.
We then build micro goals throughout the partnership that are the stepping stones of change that create the system that will make the change sustainable. We identify the critical action that needs to be taken and place them in an appropriate order. Then we focus on the first thing first (more wisdom from Stephen Covey). We drill down on that first step and create an action plan. We use the Tactic Framework to get granular on that micro action.
The T.A.C.T.I.C Framework
When we are in a coaching relationship, the purpose is to create future-focused action, and this Framework is designed to gain the clarity needed to create commitment.
I explore different goal-setting and action-planning templates in the Coaching IntelligenceTM training. However, the T.A.C.T.I.C Framework has proven to be the most successful action planning template out of all the ones I have tried.
Clarity Creates Commitment
Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, little actions are the building blocks of remarkable results.
The purpose of the T.A.C.T.I.C Framework is that all decisions are made in partnership with someone else, whether that person is your coach, mentor or colleague. The purpose is that no thinking or planning is needed after the T.A.C.T.I.C framework is complete. All that is required is to take action.
Target - The identification of the micro-step to be taken. The micro goal within the big goal. What is the very next thing you need to do? What is your target for this small, micro action?
What are the next agreed areas of focus?
What do you want to achieve?
Agreement - Identifying and naming the action step
in detail. What will it look like in action?
What are the next action points?
How will you take action?
Challenge - Identifying the things that might get in the way. These might be people, processes, purpose, or preparation.
What might stop you?
Timeframe - creates commitment for action. When will you take action?
What is the agreed timeframe for these actions to be carried out?
Identify - Identify has two parts:
Naming and curating the things needed to take action successfully. This might be identifying support needed or resources required.
What support is needed to take the next steps?
Identifying how you will know you are making progress or know that what you are doing is working
How will you know it is working?
Identify - Identify has two parts:
Naming and curating the things needed to take action successfully. This might be identifying support needed or resources required.
What support is needed to take the next steps?
Identifying how you will know you are making progress or know that what you are doing is working
How will you know it is working?
Circle back - Naming when the next check-in will be and when the next conversation will occur. The whole purpose of circle back is to create an accountability buddy for the Mahi and to create a scaffold of support for momentum.
When is the next check-in?
When will we reconnect to see how things are going?
Where you can use the T.A.C.T.I.C Framework
Anyone can use the T.A.C.T.I.C Framework to create powerful action plans in the following scenarios.
Create an action plan in a coaching conversation
Clarify actions and outcomes from a meeting
Create an action plan after you have attended professional learning
Identify next steps in learning - use with students to help them formulate their next action or learning step. Or for individuals to carve out the clarity of what comes next.
A moment of self-coaching (I use it all of the time)
You can access the resources needed to use the T.A.C.T.I.C framework Here.
Be courageous and try something new
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