Goal Setting Strategies

2 — Solving Goal & Priority Misalignment with Is/Is Not + Perspective Circle.  SOLVING THINGS with SYSTEMS THINKING (STwST) — a series of mini, real-world applications of DSRP. When a team says, “We’re working hard but not pulling in the same direction,” it’s usually not a motivation problem. And it’s rarely a communication problem. It’s a distinction + perspective problem. Different people are carrying different mental pictures of what the goal is and is not, and different perspectives on what actually counts as a priority. So even when everyone uses the same words, they’re not aiming at the same thing. They might be reading the same page but interpreting it differently. Two simple thinking moves fix this. The first is an Is / Is Not list. Take the goal and the priorities and make them explicit: what this goal is, what it is not; what matters now, and what does not. This forces clarity where assumptions usually hide. The second is a Perspective Circle. You don’t need everyone to think the same way—but you do need everyone looking at the same picture. Different roles, levels, and functions can keep their own viewpoints, as long as they’re all anchored to the same shared view. Then keep that shared model on the table. Revisit it at the start of meetings. Use it when tradeoffs show up. Let people argue with it, stress-test it, and refine it. Don’t laminate it. Put it to work. Alignment doesn’t come from hearing the right words once. It comes from people rebuilding their own internal picture until it matches the shared one. When that happens, language cleans up, decisions get faster, resources line up, and the friction fades—because action always follows the mental model. If you listen carefully, misalignment announces itself in sentences that shouldn’t exist if the goal were truly shared. Those sentences are the signal. #STwST #SystemsThinking #CabreraLabPodcast #SystemsThinkingStandardsInstitute

I recently mentored a new Head of HR at a 1,200-person tech company to build her first People Ops dashboard. Not a PowerPoint. Not a vibes report. A real dashboard that said: “I know how this company makes money, and how my team helps it grow.” First, we clarified her goals: ✅ Understand what drives revenue and retention ✅ Make people strategy a lever for innovation, not just operations ✅ Reset how HRBPs see themselves - from support function to business collaborator Her exact words: “I want to build the muscle to operate like any other exec on the team, while teaching my team to embrace a ‘biz-first’ mindset.” Then we built a dashboard to match. 📈 Revenue per Employee 💡 Why: Shows workforce productivity + ROI on talent 🎯 Target: $250K+ (varies by industry); improve quarter-over-quarter Tip: Segment by GTM, R&D, G&A to spot optimization opportunities 📈 Profitability per Employee 💡 Why: Growth is great. Profit funds the future. 🎯 Target: $50K–$150K per employee (varies by stage/directionally, aim up). Tip: Segment by function or team to see who’s building vs. burning value. 📉 Voluntary Attrition (Regrettable + Non) 💡 Why: Attrition is culture + leadership feedback in disguise 🎯 Target: Regrettable <7% annually Tip: Cut by: Team, tenure, manager to reveal hotspots 🌟 Top Talent Retention 💡 Why: Losing high performers = losing velocity 🎯 Target: >90% annual retention of top 10–15% Tip: Track: Internal mobility + development investments 💬 Employee Engagement (eNPS + Pulse) 💡 Why: Engagement predicts performance, CX, and attrition 🎯 Target: eNPS >30; Pulse up trending Tip: Segment: Trust, DEI, belonging, confidence in leadership 🧑💼 Manager Effectiveness Index 💡 Why: People don’t quit companies, they quit managers 🎯 Target: 85%+ favorable across feedback, clarity, support Tip: Sources: Pulse, 360s, retention by manager 🎯 Goal Alignment Rate 💡 Why: Strategy without execution = wasted time 🎯 Target: 95% with 3-5 measurable goals aligned to OKRs Tip: View: By team and level 🚀 Time to Productivity (New Hires) 💡 Why: Faster ramp = faster ROI 🎯 Target: <60 days to first impact deliverable Tip: Benchmarks: Sales ramp, engineer first ship, CSAT lift 🪜 Leadership Bench Strength 💡 Why: You can’t scale what you haven’t built for 🎯 Target: 75% of key roles with 2+ ready successors Tip: Cut by: Function, level, diversity 💵 Compensation Equity + Transparency 💡 Why: Trust starts with fairness 🎯 Target: 100% pay equity audits + 100% manager training in comp philosophy Tip: Overlay: Gender, race, tenure, role 🔧 People Ops Health Score 💡 Why: Broken processes break trust 🎯 Target: <5 days to close HR tickets, 80%+ system adoption, 90%+ hiring manager satisfaction Tip: Layer in: “Do internal systems help or hinder your work?” Now she, nor her HRBPs are waiting to be brought in. They’re co-pilots at the table, with the data to match. Because great HR doesn’t just build culture, it builds companies.

🏗 How To Tackle Large, Complex Projects. With practical techniques to meet the desired outcome, without being disrupted or derailed along the way ↓ 🤔 99% of large projects don’t finish on budget and on time. 🤔 Projects rarely fail because of poor skills or execution. ✅ They fail because of optimism and insufficient planning. ✅ Also because of poor risk assessment, discovery, politics. 🎯 Best strategy: Think Slow (detailed planning) + Act Fast. ✅ Allocate 20–45% of total project effort for planning. ✅ Riskier and larger projects always require more planning. ✅ Think Right → Left: start from end goal, work backwards. ✅ For each goal, consider immediate previous steps/events. ✅ Set up milestones, prioritize key components for each. ✅ Consider stakeholders, users, risks, constraints, metrics. 🚫 Don’t underestimate unknown domain, blockers, deps. ✅ Compare vs. similar projects (reference class forecasting). ✅ Set up an “execution mode” to defer/minimize disruptions. 🚫 Nothing hurts productivity more than unplanned work. Over the last few years, I've been using the technique called “Event Storming” suggested by Matteo Cavucci to capture user’s experience moments through the lens of business needs. With it, we focus on the desired business outcome, and then use research insights to project events that users will be going through towards that outcome. On that journey, we identify key milestones and break user’s events into 2 main buckets: user’s success moments (which we want to dial up) and user’s pain points or frustrations (which we want to dial down). We then break out into groups of 3–4 people to separately prioritize these events and estimate their impact and effort on Effort vs. Value curves (https://lnkd.in/evrKJUEy). The next step is identifying key stakeholders to engage with, risks to consider (e.g. legacy systems, 3rd-party dependency etc.), resources and tooling. We reserve special timing to identify key blockers and constraints that endanger successful outcome or slow us down. If possible, we also set up UX metrics to track how successful we actually are in improving the current state of UX. When speaking to business, usually I speak about better discovery and scoping as the best way to mitigate risk. We can of course throw ideas into the market and run endless experiments. But not for critical projects that get a lot of visibility — e.g. replacing legacy systems or launching a new product. They require thorough planning to prevent big disasters and urgent rollbacks. If you’d like to learn more, I can only highly recommend "How Big Things Get Done" (https://lnkd.in/erhcBuxE), a wonderful book by Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner who have conducted a vast amount of research on when big projects fail and succeed. A wonderful book worth reading! Happy planning, everyone! 🎉🥳

Stop setting goals that require you to become a completely different person by Monday. It’s okay to want big change. But you need to be realistic about what change you can take on. You’re juggling a lot. You’re probably pretty tired. You can’t overhaul your entire life right now - no matter how desperately you might want to. Big steps taken too soon will put you on the fast track to giving up too early, feeling dissatisfied, and left wondering why you can’t stick to your goals. Instead, you have to figure out which small, initial steps you can take that’ll get you on the path to the life you want and set you up for success. To do that? You have to start by looking back. If you want to set goals that stick, here’s the secret: you need to be honest with yourself about the life you’re living right now – the highs, lows, and lessons learned. Then you can focus on what you can make space for. THAT’S how you set yourself up for success. Your goals should be specific to your life. And they should pull you forward, not paralyze you. So meet yourself where you’re at. Then take small, sustainable, consistent steps towards the life you want. You have to learn to stretch yourself just enough that you grow - but not so far that you snap.

Women are not losing ambition; they are losing patience with environments that punish it. The real story is not an ambition gap, but a support, fairness, and respect gap. One of the earliest pieces of career advice I received was: “To progress, you need to have ambition.” Over 24 years in the corporate world, that's been a double edged sword - I have been praised for being driven and, in the same breath, criticised for being “too ambitious.” I have also sat in talent reviews where women were quietly written off as “not ambitious enough". In 2022, during a leadership review, a male colleague even said out loud: “Women don’t progress because they don’t have ambition .” 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 The latest Lean In and McKinsey Women in the Workplace report highlights a growing ambition gap: fewer women than men say they want to be promoted. Yet the same data make something else crystal clear: women and men are equally committed to their careers, and when women receive the same sponsorship, support, and stretch opportunities as men, the ambition gap largely disappears. So the issue is not that women suddenly woke up less driven; it is that many are looking at the “next level” and seeing more burnout, less support, and fewer real chances to succeed. In that context, stepping back from the race is not a lack of ambition - it is a rational response to a system that feels rigged. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝟮𝟬+ 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 For roughly the first 15–20 years, many women respond to blocked opportunities with even more effort and ambition: working harder & overdelivering. When doors are repeatedly closed with vague feedback like “lack of executive presence,” or “too emotional,” frustration accumulates. After decades of having to prove yourself again and again, it is not ambition that runs out; it is the willingness to keep playing a game where the rules feel opaque and uneven. That is one of the reasons so many experienced women leave corporate roles or step off the traditional ladder mid-career. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 The complete career advice is: protect your ambition by choosing workplaces where: Support systems, fair processes, and allyship actively enable women’s progression. Sponsorship, not just mentorship, is in place so that women are advocated for, not just advised. Policies, leadership behaviour, and culture reduce burnout. Because ambition without support does not magically create opportunity; it only creates exhaustion, cynicism, and burnout. What would your organisation need to change so that they would choose to stay and grow? #careeradvice ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have learned a lot during my 2 decades in the corporate world, mostly the hard way. Every Sunday, I share some of my learnings and what has helped me climb the corporate ladder while staying true to my values

Product Vision vs. Product Strategy: How to Align the WHY and the HOW for Maximum Impact Imagine that you are building a career guidance platform for product managers 🎯 Goal: Empower PMs to successfully transition into new roles 🆘 Challenge: Your team is constantly debating features, chasing new ideas, and the roadmap is all over the place ❓ The PROBLEM: You’re mixing up your product vision (the why) with your product strategy (the how) Vision vs. Strategy – What's the Difference? ✅ Vision: This is your North Star - it defines WHY your product exists. 📌 Ex: Empower PMs to successfully transition into new roles with confidence and support. ✅ Strategy: This is your GPS - it outlines HOW you will bring that vision to life. 📌 Ex: Build an AI tool to match PMs with mentors, courses, and job opportunities. 👉 THE SECRET: A clear vision inspires. A sharp strategy executes. To get both right, I recommend the following two frameworks that can simplify the process: 1️⃣ Roman Pichler’s Product Vision Board - Craft an inspiring yet actionable vision by focusing on: �� Vision: What’s the big, bold goal? 🔹 Target Group: Who are you serving? 🔹 Needs: What problem are you solving? 🔹 Product: What makes it stand out? 🔹 Business Goals: How does it align with company objectives? 2️⃣ Paweł Huryn's Product Strategy Canvas - Turn vision into action with a 10-point strategy, including: 🔹 Vision: What are you aspiring to achieve? 🔹 Market Segments: Who are your customers, and what problems do they face? 🔹 Relative Costs: Are you optimizing for cost or unique value? 🔹 Value Proposition: How does your product uniquely solve your customers’ problems? 🔹 Trade-offs: What will you not do to maintain focus? 🔹 Key Metrics: How will you measure success (e.g., North Star Metric, OMTM)? 🔹 Growth: What’s your plan for scaling (e.g., PLG, sales-led growth)? 🔹 Capabilities: What competencies or resources do you need? 🔹 Can’t/Won’t: Why can’t or won’t competitors copy your strategy? 🔹 Ask Yourself: Do all elements of your strategy align, and how will you validate assumptions? 🔗 Why These Frameworks Work Together - Roman’s Vision Board bridges vision and strategy. Pawel’s Strategy Canvas dives deeper into execution, ensuring every decision aligns with your ultimate goals. Together, they create a seamless flow from inspiration to action. I’ve found this combination to be highly effective in driving clarity, alignment, and impact. 🔑 Key Takeaway - Your vision is the why. Your strategy is the how. Together, they ensure your product THRIVES, not just survives. 💬 Your Turn: How do you approach vision and strategy? Tried these frameworks? Let’s discuss in the comments! #ProductManagement #VisionVsStrategy #FrameworksForSuccess #ProductStrategy #ProductLeadership

If I were starting a new PROJECT today and wanted to plan it with ZERO prior knowledge, I'd do this: Step 1: Define Your Objective • Clearly articulate what success looks like for the project. • Break down the high-level goal into smaller, manageable milestones. • Ensure the objective aligns with stakeholders' expectations to avoid misalignment later. Step 2: Build Your Plan Backwards and Leverage Historical Data Most people skip this step entirely. But this is a huge mistake—because you risk creating a plan that doesn’t align with deadlines, resources, or realistic expectations. Here’s how: • Start from the final deliverable and work backward to define the timeline. • Gather and review historical data or similar project examples to understand typical timelines and challenges. • Identify key dependencies and create a logical sequence for tasks. • Use project planning tools (like Gantt charts or Kanban boards) to visualize your plan. • Clearly define roles and responsibilities for each stage. Pro tip: Don’t forget to account for buffer time—projects rarely go 100% as planned. Step 3: Identify Risks and Create a Mitigation Plan This isn't easy. But if you can do this, you will get: • Clarity on potential roadblocks before they derail progress. • Stakeholder confidence in your ability to deliver. • A proactive, problem-solving mindset that boosts your credibility. Here's a quick way to do this: List out possible risks, evaluate their impact and likelihood, and create a plan to minimize or respond to them. Collaborate with your team to spot any blind spots. Don't skip this step. It took me months of trial and error (and some chaos) to crystallize these steps—hope this helps! 🚀

It is so important to understand and utilize the voice of your customer (VOC). The VOC is esentially the feedback, opinions, preferences, and expectations of customers about your product, service, or brand. We are taught very early on in #leanmanagement about the importance of understanding and integrating customer feedback, needs, and preferences into the product or service development process. Why? Because VOC helps ensure that products or services align closely with what customers truly want and value, reducing waste, increasing quality and increasing customer satisfaction. Many companies collect data...lots of it...but leave out the crucial step of analyzing this collected data, identifying patterns, and drawing actionable insights. Also, they collect data far too late, often after the work has been done instead of getting input at the start of the creative process. So, here are a few guidelines to help you make the most of your customer voice: 1️⃣ Gather VOC at every critical stage: pre-development, during development, post launch and at critical touchpoints. 2️⃣ Identify Patterns and Prioritize Issues: Group similar content and determine which issues or suggestions are most frequently mentioned or have the most significant impact on customer satisfaction. 3️⃣ Contextualize Feedback: Consider when, where, and how the feedback was provided to better interpret its significance. 4️⃣ Quantify Feedback: Assign metrics or scores where possible to quantify feedback. This helps prioritize improvements based on the magnitude of impact. 5️⃣ Root Cause Analysis: Dig deeper to understand the root causes of recurring issues. Sometimes, the stated problem might not be the actual underlying issue. 6️⃣ Link Feedback to Action: Connect the feedback directly to actionable steps. Develop strategies or changes that directly address the issues raised by customers. 7️⃣ Continual Improvement: Use feedback not just for immediate fixes but as part of an ongoing process for continuous improvement. Regularly revisit feedback to track progress and make further adjustments. What other tips can you add?? #voiceofthecustomer #lean #qualitymanagement #customerfeedback #customersatisfaction Image Source: Lucidchart

SMART goals are dumb. Definitely outdated. They were literally coined in 1981 by John T. Doran in the Management Review. That's 43 years old. Oh and psst - your team hates setting them. Why? Because the acronym is fundamentally flawed: Specific: Limits creativity and hampers your ability to adapt when new information emerges. 🤔 Measurable: Sure, you know when you've achieved it, but does it drive meaningful, impactful outcomes? 📉 Attainable: Keeps you comfortably within your comfort zone—hardly a place for growth. 🛋️ Realistic: Another word for attainable. It encourages small thinking and boxes you in. 🚫 Time-bound: While deadlines are important, meaningful goals need built-in milestones that keep motivation high and the dopamine flowing. 🎯 In short, SMART goals keep us stuck in mediocrity, lacking purpose and innovation. So, what’s the alternative? Enter the PIC Framework: Purpose-Driven: Every goal should connect to a deeper mission or value. This alignment not only motivates but also gives each goal a clear "why." 🎯 Impactful: Goals should aim for outcomes that matter—shifting the focus from what's easily measurable to what's truly transformative. 🌍 Challenging: If your goals don’t make you a little uncomfortable, you’re not aiming high enough. Embrace the discomfort as a sign of growth and ambition.💪 Want to innovate your goal setting? Here's how you can bring PIC to your organization: Start with Purpose ➡ Align goals with the organization's mission. 🌟 Define Impact ➡ Focus on meaningful outcomes that drive the business forward over easy measurements (especially, for the sake of a great dashboard). 📊 Set Challenging Objectives ➡ Encourage ambition and innovation - yep, even if it scares you. 🚀 Embed Milestones ➡ Keep motivation high with regular wins - not just a potential bonus at the end of the year. 🏆 Foster Reflection ➡ Regularly review and adapt goals as needed. 🔄 (In other words, setting a goal in January and refusing to change it because you set it, even though you have new information, is well...ridiculous.) By moving from SMART to PIC, you create a culture of purpose, impact, and challenge. And who knows - maybe people will finally start to buy-in to the goal setting process and actually like it! 🌟 #Leadership #Innovation #GoalSetting #BusinessGrowth #PurposeDriven

Steps to Set Credible Sustainability Goals 🌎 Setting credible sustainability goals is essential for organizations aiming to drive meaningful, lasting impact. By following a structured approach, companies can ensure their commitments are robust, actionable, and globally relevant. Here’s a streamlined pathway for establishing effective sustainability goals. First, align with global standards. Anchoring sustainability goals to frameworks like the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the Paris Agreement places these efforts within a global context, signaling a commitment to shared challenges and providing a framework for tracking progress. The next step is conducting a materiality assessment. This process identifies the most critical environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues for the organization and its stakeholders. Focusing on these priorities directs resources toward areas with the greatest potential impact, ensuring the organization addresses what matters most. Setting SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—makes sustainability commitments clear and actionable. Well-defined objectives provide a foundation for tracking performance, showing stakeholders tangible progress, and reinforcing accountability. Engaging stakeholders is also crucial. Involving employees, customers, suppliers, investors, and communities ensures the organization’s sustainability goals reflect diverse perspectives. This collaborative approach fosters broad support and encourages long-term commitment. Benchmarking against industry peers further strengthens these goals. Understanding where others in the industry stand allows an organization to set competitive, relevant targets. Benchmarking demonstrates a commitment to improvement and alignment with best practices. Finally, seeking external validation enhances credibility. Consulting with experts or using third-party assessments provides an objective review, highlighting strengths and areas for improvement. This validation builds stakeholder trust, showing a commitment to high standards. By following these steps, organizations can set credible sustainability goals that are both impactful and achievable. This structured approach ensures initiatives are grounded in best practices, aligned with global standards, and supported by stakeholders, paving the way for lasting positive change. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #climatechange #climateaction #strategy