A company aims to reach $1 billion in revenue this year.
A team’s target for this quarter is to have 5 million active users.
We hear about goals at work a lot.
Company goals. Team goals.
A goal represents what should be or can be.
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$1 billion in revenue is what your company should or can achieve this year. At the moment, it is at $1 million.
5 million active users are what your team should or can get this quarter. At the moment, you are at 1 million.
There is a gap between a goal and what is at the moment.
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Moving towards a goal is to move from what is to should be or can be.
Moving towards a shared goal is to move from where we are to where we should be or can be.
It can be satisfying yet painful.
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Painful when the shared goal is not clear.
5 million active users in this quarter.
Some understand it as 5 million active users on average.
Some assume having 5 million users on a particular day in this quarter.
Ambiguity brings pain.
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Painful when lacking alignment to reach the shared goal.
5 million active users in this quarter.
One group assumes they need to turn left to get there.
Another group turns right.
Others turn up and down.
(Even more painful if the groups must collaborate with one another but they don’t. For example, Group 1 must turn first, Group 3 second, then only Group 5 and 6 together.)
The absence of alignment brings pain.
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Painful if there is no compelling narrative behind the goal.
“People are not persuaded by numbers (and certainly not by numbers alone). They are persuaded by a compelling narrative.” – MIT Sloan Management Review
5 million active users.
Because the big boss said so.
Because we cannot lose from our competitors.
Because it helps our team’s morale to know what we have been working for 3 years serves the market needs.
Each sentence above creates different feelings. It connects differently, thus might yield significantly different results.
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Learn more about the two habits (OKR and Narrative Communication) Product Narrative can help you form in your company – along with the nudging to cause behavior change – so you can achieve your goals with less of those pain.