What is Goal Science?

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Goal Science™ Thinking

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A Brief History

2012

GSTGoalScienceThinking!

1967 1973 1981 1984 1990 1999

S.M.A.R.T.George Doran’s“S.M.A.R.T. Way”

MBOsThe Effective ExecutiveBy Peter Drucker

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The Good and Bad of MBOs

The Good The Bad

• Infrequently updated

• Siloed

• Management-driven

• Tied to performance reviews

and compensation

• MBOs ushered in era of

results-oriented

management

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The Good and Bad of SMART Goals

• Attainable: research has proven that

challenging goals are better

• Focuses on the setting

of goals, not pursuing

• Stifles creative thinking for

knowledge workers

• Specific: absolutely critical

• Measurable: good when appropriate

• Relevant: aligned goals are better goals

• Timely: deadlines boost performance

• Better than no goals

The Good The Bad

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20121967 1973 1981 1984 1990 1999


A Brief History

OKRsJohn Doerr introducesOKRs to Google

KPIs


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The OKRs Revolution

• Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are invented at Intel

• KPCB’s John Doerr brings OKRs to Google and more

Benefits

• Quarterly vs. Annual process

• Transparent and aligned

• Aspirational

• Not tied to performance reviews/compensation

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How High Performing Companies Manage Goals

Open

Transparent and all individuals participate

Frequent

Quarterly and monthly check-ins

Cross-Functional

Horizontal coordination and dependency alignment

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A Brief History

Today

GSTGoalScienceThinking

1967 1973 1981 1984 1990 1999


KPIs


OKRsJohn Doerr introducesOKRs to Google

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Goal Science Thinking

• A set of principles that helps people

achieve their goals

‒ Better goal-setting and goal-pursuing

‒ Enhances SMART goal-setting

• Not a process like OKRs or MBOs

• Goal Science thinking is based on:

‒ Leading academic research

‒ Consumer engagement techniques

‒ Data from our platform

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Goal Science Questions

What? Who? When? How? Why?

Concrete and focused

You and your coworkers

Continually Progress and feedback Make an impact

• You know exactly what your goals are, and how theyinterrelate to your business as a whole.

• You focus on 3-5 goals at a time.

• Your goals are quantifiable with clear metrics and milestones.

• Your goals are yours to create and own, but they connect to others too.

• Having a supportive community alongside you increases goal progress.

• The aspirational, future goals you want take time. You have smaller steps along the way to help reach them.

• The workplace is dynamic. Adapting goals when appropriate helps you stay flexible and on track.

• Progress is the positive force motivating you to do your best.

• Achieving small steps makes feedback relevant, which further fuels momentum.

• You want to accomplishchallenging things at work, and make a difference.

• Mastering aspirational, meaningful goals leads to greater engagement, performance, and satisfaction at work.

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Goal Science™ Thinking

Connected Supported Progress-based Adaptable Aspirational

Transparent and aligned

Social reinforcement and recognition

Frequent and measurable feedback

Flexibility to respond to changing

priorities

Retrospection to encourage excellence

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• Individuals will achieve more when they are connected and have an internal sense of what they can do to make the biggest impact for the business

• Goals need to be connected in three ways

– Vertical: cascading of goals is challenging at organizational scale, including bottoms-up goals

‒ Only 6% of managers have meetings/discussions to set goals throughout the year

– Company/Mission: An individual can clearly see how his or her goals connect to the company goals and mission, making goals more meaningful

– Horizontal: capturing cross-functional dependencies is difficult has major operational implications

Connected

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Alignment at a Glance™

Connected

Top-down, bottom-up,

and horizontal alignment

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Connected



See how people connect with Goal Chart

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Connected



Create and cascade goals

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Connected



Set bottom-up milestones and goals

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Supported



0

20

40

60

80

100

Goal successMatthews, Gail. "Goals Research Summary." (2013).

No writing

Writing

Writing &sharing

Writing,sharing &feedback

Go

al S

ucc

ess

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• Transparent goal setting creates a social contract

– Employees are accountable for their goals

– Co-workers are accountable for helping them achieve those goals

• Visibility fosters more recognition and encouragement

– #1 factor for happiness at work: appreciation for your work

• Celebrating success with social gestures is very effective

– 90% of cheers result in a returned cheer or nudge

Supported

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Supported

Working transparently

with social reinforcement

and recognition

Work Profile™

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Supported



and recognition

@Mentions

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Follow or add followers to goals

Supported



and recognition

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• Fitbit users

– 43% more steps than non-Fitbit users

– Lose 13 lbs

– After 12 weeks they are up to 30-40% more active

• Quantified self: people want frequent, measurable, and visual feedback

• Progress towards meaningful work is the strongest workplace motivator

Progress-based

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Company Dashboards

Relevant feedback and frequent wins

Progress-based

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Beautifully visualized goal data


Progress-based

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Progress-based

Weekly planning digests

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Real-time notifications


Progress-based

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Adaptable

High agility orgs:

More likely to capitalize on change

High agility employees:

More likely to be top quartile performers

4.5x 3.5x

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• An annual cadence for goal setting is almost like having no goals at all

• Highly agile or quarterly goal setting organizations like Google:

– 4.5x likely to capitalize on change

– 5x likely to have cultures fostering innovation and trust

– 4x more likely to value creativity

• High agility employees are 3.5x likely to be top quartile performers

• A lack of adaptability has major operational implications

– 66% of managers don’t revise their goals throughout the year

Adaptable

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Edit goals when necessary


business needs

Adaptable

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Add goals to your calendar


business needs

Adaptable

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Manage goals on any device


business needs

Adaptable

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• Stretch goals produce the highest levels of effort and performance

• Because goals should be difficult to achieve, they should not be tightly coupled to compensation

– Tight coupling can lead to sandbagging

• Aspirational goals need to be personally meaningful

– Not all goals should come from corporate

– GV partner Rick Klau suggests more than 50% of goals should originate from employees

– Securing employee participation = reaching previously unattainable goals

Aspirational

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Aspirational

Greater achievement and encourage

excellence

What is Goal Science?

Leadership & Management

Transcript of What is Goal Science?