Collaborate around enterprise and organizational goals

In this video, you will learn how to:

  • Collaborate with your team
  • Define what you and your team must do to accomplish the top-level goal
  • Refine your goal hierarchy from Section 2: Establish a vision and strategy
Transcript
Here, the high level goals start to cascade, building upon the strategic pillars outlined in the objective statement. Mid senior level management establishes goals that provide segmented guidance of the driving results required to fulfill the vision. Discuss and collaborate with your direct reports and teams. There are several key behaviors that enhance how this step is accomplished, whether you are a C-suite executive, vice president or other organizational leader, if you are responsible for establishing the high order goals from the first step, you need to discuss and collaborate with your direct reports and teams to ensure that they understand those goals, why they’re important, and how critical the goals are to the business. A key discussion question might be, what must you and/or your teams achieve to drive the accomplishment of this top level goal? Notice that the question is not what might you do, nor are you stating here are my goals, now go to find yours. This is a purposeful discussion intended to get team members aligned on how they, within their scope of influence, can align up to this goal, which will drive or enable the greater achievement. Similar to milestones within projects, aligned goals represent smaller scope objectives that once accomplished, contribute to a great global outcome. Cascade goals from the top level. After the top level goals have been established and reviewed, it will be up to team members to cascade goals from that level in order to set more focused goals. Naturally, the scope of these goals will be more narrow.
Considering the designated responsible individual for the goal and their scope of influence, the goal should answer the question of what they and their team must achieve to fulfill the parent goal to which it is aligned. Let’s look at some examples of cascaded goals using the high-level goals established previously. Example one, goal, our brand is globally recognized as a leader in our industry. Result, we obtain 55% market share within our industry. Align goal number one, we have a diversified customer base. Result number one, more than 40% of our customers are located overseas. Result number two, we have customers represented in more than 50 countries. Align goal number two, we have a strong partnership with key industry analysts. Result, we are published in five or more industry articles or journals. Example number two, goal, our customers rely on us as trusted partners who provide a product or service crucial to their success. Result, we achieve an NPS score of 30 or higher. Align goal number one, we partner with our customers in order to improve our product or service. Result, our product or service is updated every six months with improvements driven by customer feedback. Align goal number two, promote our value, our loyalty program and associated benefits throughout their journey with our product or services. Result number one, we update our loyalty program to include a wider variety of benefits that are valued at key stages of our customer life cycle Result number two, our loyalty program enrollment increases by 5% this year. Example number three. Goal, we maintain a culture where diverse individuals can thrive in their careers. Result, we achieve an eNPS score of 50 or higher. Align goal number one, our employees have a high sense of ownership and accountability for the success of the company. We achieve an average of nine or higher out of 10 in our engagement feedback. Align goal number two, our employees acquire and maintain the required skills to see and solve company challenges. Result, we have an average completion rate of 95% or higher on all assigned courses within the company’s learning management system. As you can see in these examples, each aligned goal represents an achievement that would either drive or support the achievement of the parent goal. Depending how broad in scope the top level goals are, leaders and work managers may need to consider cascading to a third level. While it is a best practice to create a simplified and clear goal hierarchy as possible, you want to ensure that goals cascade to the right levels. This will help to ensure accountability for team leaders as team members have a clear understanding of the target achievement. One recommendation would be to define company goals at the top level, followed by aligned divisional goals and finally aligned team goals. However, the level of depth you define will be dependent upon your needs and business case. Summary of recommendations, number one, as leaders and work managers seek to understand and segment the top level goals, consider the question what must you and/or your teams achieve to drive the accomplishment of this top level goal? Number two, cascaded goals should represent a necessary outcome that must be achieved to drive or enable the achievement of its parent. Also, the scope of that achievement should be more narrow than that of its parent. Number three, don’t create complex goal hierarchies that are difficult to follow or have too many layers. Keep your goal hierarchy related to the scope of the goal setters, and only build a hierarchy to the depth that you’re willing or able to manage. -
  • As leaders and work managers seek to understand and segment the top-levels goals, consider the question: What must you and/or your teams achieve to drive the accomplishment of this top-level goal?
  • Cascaded goals should represent a necessary outcome that must be achieved to drive or enable the achievement of its parent.
  • Don’t create complex goal hierarchies that are difficult to follow or have too many layers. A good rule of thumb is to keep your goal hierarchy related to the scope of the goal setters, and only build a hierarchy to the depth you’re willing and able to manage.
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