Company Goals and Definition of Success
Consultants Online have developed a powerful and very positive exercise your team can use to develop a strategy for improving the performance of the organisation. If you need help with this process, give us a call. We can facilitate the workshop if you wish.
The main outcome of this exercise is a Strategy Map.
First, you need a quiet room – with a blank wall and enough space for at least 5 sheets of flipchart paper to be attached to it. You also need a block of yellow “post-it” notes for each person in the room – these are for people to quietly write their ideas and suggestions about how, in their personal opinion, the organisation would look if it were completely successful.
Announce to the group, “Imagine we are 3 years from now, the year is 2014 and our organisation is one of the most successful in the world. Look back and see what has been achieved in each of the key areas that drive the business – what would success look like to you personally?”
Each person writes their answers in a few words on a “Post It” note. One Post-it per idea, and sticks them onto the relevant flipcharts under the following headings (One title on each separate flipchart):
- People: What sort of people do we have working here?
- Operations: What improvements have we made to the way things are done in this organisation? What systems and procedures have made us the best company in the world?
- Marketing: Who are our best customers and why? How do we make them feel good about our company
- Finance: How did we measure our success – size, growth? What investments did we make?
Everyone decides under which heading their statement best fits – and sticks about 10 post-it notes onto the different flipcharts – When you are ready, everyone in the group reads them together.
Step 2 is to bring together (cluster) the post-it notes into small groups that have something in common. Everyone in the team participates in this part of the exercise. These clusters of post-its are a powerful way of helping to decide the strategy of the organisation – and everyone has a chance to contribute their ideas:
Build Consensus
a. Working together – Review the ideas on the flipchart
b. Read everyone’s ideas
c. Put them into clusters / groups / categories with a similar theme
d. Some ideas might move from one cluster to another
e. Aim for around 8 clusters under each heading (flipchart)
f. If an idea fits more than one category – make a copy and add it to that cluster
g. Write a short phrase or two that describes what the post-it notes in that cluster are about
h. When the summaries are written – each one is discussed and approved
i. Keep the summaries – put all the post-its in separate, labelled envelopes
3. Setting Objectives for the Medium Term (12 to 18 months)
a. Turning our “picture of success” into “what are we going to do now?”
b. Management team priorities for the short to medium term
c. What do we need to focus on making happen to deliver the destination?
d. Each person gets 20 votes (one sticky dot = one vote)
e. Maximum 3 votes from one person per statement
f. Add up total number of votes and mark the top 10
g. All statements are important – but we need an idea where to start.
4. Make a Strategy Map
a. Take each of the top 10 statements in turn
b. As a group, brainstorm what the management team could do (actions) to achieve this statement.
c. Aim for 5 actions per top 10 statements – each on a post-it note and place randomly on a flipchart
d. When no more ideas – cluster the related actions
e. Give each cluster a name (3 to 6 words beginning with a verb) e.g. “Hire and train new staff”
f. Write each name on an Activity Bubble (coloured post-it). Try to come up with at least 8.
g. Place the ~10 Activity bubbles on the bottom of a new flipchart
h. Decide what each activity bubble will achieve when completed (refer to the destination) e.g. “Find lowest cost supplier” (activity) = “Low cost product” (outcome)
i. Write the outcome name on an Outcome Bubble (post-it) and place on top half of the new flipchart – try to come up with at least 8 outcomes.
j. Sort the bubbles vertically.
k. Identify relationships between objectives and link them with arrows (only the main ones)
l. What causes what to happen?
m. Check the orphans and rethink.
5. Assign the objectives
a. Assign each objective to a member of the management team- someone in this room – very important!
b. Allocate objectives to the most suitable manager
c. e.g. “Hire and train new staff” = HR Manager
d. “Improve the dispatch process” = Operations Manager
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6. Define the objectives
a. Manager has to write a 1 page definition of their objective (see template you can download).
b. Managers need time to reflect and change their minds about the objectives (so it's a good idea to have a separate meeting the next day)
7. How do you know if this objective is being achieved?
a. Your first thoughts on measures (not the final decision).
b. Owner leads the definition of the objective and the measure
c. Ownership of objectives and measures is essential for the project to work.
Also Next Meeting:
Documentation to describe the Objectives Targets and Measures: Objectve Definition & Measures_Targets Download these.
8. Defining the Strategic Objectives, choosing measures, setting targets
The 3 to 6 words in each Activity Objective will mean different things to different people.
a. Defining each Objective drives consensus about what the priorities really are.
b. Clear objective definitions help with measure selection.
9. Assign each objective to a member of the management team
a. Task them to complete a 1-page definition of “their” objectives.
b. Refer to the post-it notes / PowerPoint summary for background to Activity Objectives
c. Don’t let the manager delegate this task, “You are the only person who can do this”
The process is usually iterative:
d. Managers need time to reflect and change their minds (within reason).
e. The first draft Strategy Map may well evolve.
10. Measures help you determine whether the objective is being achieved.
Choose 1 to 3 measures for each objective.
Good measures:
- Appropriate
- Available or easily obtained
- Frequently available
When choosing measures we need to track both the effort we are putting in (activity) And the result (outcome):
11. Activity measures – track if we are doing enough of the activity – e.g. “ensure staff are competent, motivated and compensated” – so how do we measure the doing of this? – maybe training budget per head or training days provided.
12. Outcome measures – track the effect of doing the activities – how do we measure this? – staff survey, skills audit, staff turnover.
- Activity / outcome split is essential.
- Measures can be done by a project team – but targets still need to be agreed by owners.
- Targets should be derived from the long-term goals of the destination statement (PowerPoint). Broken down into manageable sub-goals liked with your review cycle (e.g. quarterly).
13. What is the baseline?
If there is no historical data on which to base a goal and set a target you may have to wait until the first measurement data has been collected.
14. Live workshop can be used to sign off:
a. What is the baseline i.e. current performance?
b. What will be the targets?
c. What will be discussed at the first review meeting?
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