Big Goals need Small Steps
26. Jul, 2010 
4 Comments
Lately I have been reading and researching ideas related to setting goals and getting things done. I am wired to be an activator. Consequently, I believe everybody benefits from setting goals. I like watching people reach their goals. I enjoy it even more when I get to be part of helping others turn an idea into reality.
Over the past few years, I have heard many talk about big hairy audacious goals or BHAG’s. I’m drawn to the idea of working toward big accomplishments and regularly compile my own list of audacious goals. I have even encouraged the Communication Arts team at Oak Hills to create their list of personal Six Big Goals. Every six weeks the list is scrubbed, completed goals are removed and new goals are added. I have to applaud the team for their willingness to think carefully about investing effort toward an area they identify as needing help. Their efforts have gone a long way toward making things happen. Six months have passed since we began creating six big goals for six weeks, and recently I have begun to rethink my expectations.
I am beginning to think it is best to work on only one audacious goal at a time. Not 3. Not 4. Not 6. Just 1.
I have a darling niece named Ava. She is two, and like most toddlers, she gets around. I remember watching her early days of pulling herself up to stand by the sofa. For a while she was content to bounce up and down as she stood there, but that didn’t last long. She was soon inching along, and then there was the challenge of getting back down to crawl. Each of these little steps moved her toward the bigger goal. The day came when she no longer crawled, and the sofa was now for climbing and jumping. Ava had a big goal to accomplish and within a couple of months, she found her balance, and her small steps turned into running feet.
Reflecting on Ava’s journey toward walking has led me to reconsider how to best set goals. Ava had one big goal in front of her, learn to walk. It could have been a list of several things; get out of diapers, learn how to dress, brush her teeth. The list could be long. What she most needed was to focus her energy and time on learning how to walk. In the past, I have listed several big goals, usually about six, and then began working toward completing a few. I’ve said to myself, “I’m a multi-tasker, I can do this.” Inevitably, several weeks into this process, I found myself losing interest, repeating the cycle and looking for goals that seemed more interesting or compelling. Sure, some of the goals were accomplished, but rarely was every goal completed.
Like a child learning to walk, big audacious goals don’t happen overnight. It takes focused effort on a series of small steps to successfully complete a big goal. Small steps make a difference over time. I have come to think that the small steps are where the most traction is gained when working to accomplish a big goal. Small steps eventually lead to a big win for the team.
So where does this lead? Instead of setting six big goals to be completed in six weeks, I think it may be better to set one big goal and then list the top five small steps to accomplishing that goal. One goal completed every six weeks will lead to completing eight big goals during a year. Multiply those eight goals by 21 staff members and the accomplishments jump to 168 goals completed in a year.
Do you think it is better to focus on accomplishing one big goal and listing the small steps, or, list several big goals and work on them simultaneously?
Articles that influenced my thoughts:
Hey Boss- Enough with the Big, Hairy Goals!, Robert I. Sutton
How to Set and Reach your Goals, Rick Warren
Related posts:
Interestingly enough. ..studies are showing that multi-tasking will lead to fewer accomplishments than focusing on one thing at a time. However, i think some of this depends on the person. I like having a couple of big ideas at once. I feel that the visual progress on the chart helps keep us from getting overwhelmed.
I’ve been reading the same thing about multi-tasking. Jumping from one task to another takes more time than just focusing on the one thing to completion. I agree some people are better at handling the interruptions or going between several tasks.
I think your right about having a couple goals “on deck”. It helps to know where you’re going after the goal your working on is completed. Good thought Steve.
I find that only one or two BIG goals really even make the 6×6 list anyway. It seems like we end up getting a lot of small tasks on there that really could be completed in a week or less just so we have 6. I really like the idea of dreaming super BIG and giving yourself the six weeks to concentrate and get it acomplished.
I think you make a good point there Tim. Thanks for sharing.