Creating Meaningful Goals And Objectives
Writing down your goals and objectives is all part of business planning.
But how do you choose your goals and objectives, and do your flow from one to the other?
Many people sit in a business planning workshop, and when getting to the “Goals” part of the discussion, start plucking their wish list out of the air. Then, when asked for their objectives, they usually repeat the goals, but in more detail.
Goals should not come from a wish list or a to-do list. Goals should come as a direct result of examining where you are now, where you want to go, and how to get there from here. While some of your wish list may have come from some consideration of a vision, you need a more process-driven approach.
You can download your free worksheet on how to create meaningful goals and strategies to follow the process.
Let’s start with some definitions. A goal is what you want to achieve. An objective is how you are going to achieve that goal.
Your goals must come from a study of your Key Strategic Issues – those high-impact issues that you need to resolve in order to move your business from where you are now to where you want to be. Goals synchronise with what you must do in order to move closer to your vision. Objectives then outline how you are going to achieve your goal and sets up measures for the journey.
You can download your free worksheet here and follow the process.
First, identify your Key Strategic Issues. For each KSI write the goal (the aim of resolving the KSI).
For example if one of your KSI’s was “high cost in producing the service” the goal might be “To reduce the cost of production.”
Then define the goals by its objectives. In the above example an objective might be “to reduce the time to create the service by 20%”
But what makes these goals and objectives really meaningful, and achievable, is “chunking.” Start to chunk down the objectives into discrete packages that can be achieved over a set period of time. These are called milestones.
By the way, it’s often helpful to share your discoveries and share in others’ so after you have completed your worksheet, why not get back to teikoh.com and put in the comments section how you found it. While there you may be interested in my One Day Business Plan online training course that takes you through a quick and detailed process to create your business plan in one day.
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