All successful organizations have it; a vision for the future. A ambition. A goal you want to achieve together. Very logical, because a good ambition gives the organization direction and focus and it binds employees and customers. It also provides inspiration, enthusiasm and purpose. At least, if employees live up to this ambition. But how do you make sure that all employees know what the ambition is and actually support it?
At Treams, we also have an ambition. We call it ourselves the BHAG , Big Hairy Audacious Goal. A concrete goal, very measurable but also very uncomfortable and scary. For example, our goal is based on the number of people we help get a little better every day, or very briefly, the number of users in our software . And that all sounds very rosy. Working toward a common ambition and achieving goals. And actually it is now. But a whole process preceded that. A process of trial and error. I'll tell you more about it....
It all started with our CEO Iris Zonneveldt. Ambitious and ready to take Treams to the next level. The BHAG had been drafted, it had been reduced to goals for 2020 and even for 2018. In addition, the goals for each department were ready and Iris was all set to grow super hard. Time to present it to the team. Top, the team was excited. A few weeks later... the team had crawled back into the old work rhythm, no longer had the goals engraved in their heads and were no longer working together towards the shared ambition, all the while Iris had explained it so well and it was clear to everyone where we were going. What was missing was repetition, and so that was where it went wrong.
How to do it?
Fortunately, we at Treams quickly realized that it didn't work that way, and within a few weeks we were completely back on track. How we handled it then:It all starts with culture. Basically, it's very important that you have people working for you who fit your culture. So how you work with each other, what you think is important and what you stand for. That piece of culture is something you can select on when hiring people. It may be very black and white, but ultimately it is very important to get everyone on the same page, and that starts with culture. In addition, it is extremely important to maintain focus. In everything you do, ask yourself if it contributes to the common goal. If not, move it to a later date or even remove it from your to-do list. A clear goal gives much more focus and direction.
Spread the word
You have your goal clearly written down, then what? Of course, everyone needs to know what this goal is and what you are all working toward. Repetition is the key word here. You can present it only once to your employees and expect them to then be able to bring it up at any time (as we initially did at Treams), but experience shows that this does not work. Martin Luther King repeated the text "I have a Dream" 9 times in the first part of his speech for a reason. A message only sticks if it is repeated several times. Hang it large in the office, incorporate it into the induction program for new employees or mention it in every team presentation.
Personal and team goals
In addition to the organization's objective, it is hugely important that employees also have their personal and/or team objectives . After all, it does not really work motivating when you are only given goals to achieve. For example: the sales department must generate five percent more revenue in the next quarter. Then let the sales team decide how they are going to achieve this objective and who does what. That way you keep them all involved. Just be sure to help them formulate the goals. After all, this can be very tricky.