Goal Science Thinking™ is a set of goal principles that helps people set better goals, and pursue their goals more successfully. It builds on frameworks like SMART and enhances highly-effective processes like OKRs and MBOs.
3. 3
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
4. 4
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
5. 5
20121967 1973 1981 1984 1990 1999
S.M.A.R.T.
George Doran’s
“S.M.A.R.T. Way”
A Brief History
OKRs
John Doerr introduces
OKRs to Google
KPIs
MBOs
The Effective Executive
By Peter Drucker
6. 6
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
7. 7
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
9. 9
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
10. 10
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 they
interrelate 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 accomplish
challenging things at
work, and make a
difference.
• Mastering aspirational,
meaningful goals leads
to greater engagement,
performance, and
satisfaction at work.
11. 11
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
12. 12
• 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
13. 13
Alignment at a Glance™
Connected
Top-down,
bottom-up,
and horizontal
alignment
18. 18
• 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
21. 21
Follow or add followers to goals
Supported
Working
transparently
with social
reinforcement
and recognition
22. 22
• 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
28. 28
• 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
29. 29
Edit goals when necessary
Flexibility to
respond to
changing
business needs
Adaptable
30. 30
Add goals to your calendar
Flexibility to
respond to
changing
business needs
Adaptable
31. 31
Manage goals on any device
Flexibility to
respond to
changing
business needs
Adaptable
32. 32
• 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
We’ve modeled this after how we see companies like Google drive and manage goals
Open- transparent- all individuals participate and has a bottoms up alignment
Cross-functional to iron our dependencies and really drive alignment
Frequency- really critical about to have enterprise and organizational agility
Goal Science thinking is a set of principles that help employees set better goals, and achieve them. We distilled these principles after talking with the best high performing companies, reading top academic research, and analyzing data from our own platform
Connected- Having open and connected goals fosters accountability as it’s part of the organizational social contract. It also irons out cross-functional dependencies
Supported- Most employees especially millennials need passive social gestures as a way to feel recognized.
Progress-based- Progress is a huge driver for motivation
Adaptable- We’ve talked about this but agility is key in staying ahead in today’s competitive space
Aspirational- As employees build their goal muscle, retrospective, scoring goals become a critical part of setting stretch and aspirational goals