We are on the third leg of our journey into the science of MAKE PROGRESS®, to understand what happens in our brains when we work with goals and how to create the optimal conditions for achieving them.
In the first stage, we discovered how the brain is naturally predisposed to work for goals and how we can increase skills and motivation to keep our performance high.
In the second stage we realized that not all goals are the same: to increase the chances of success, we must formulate them following a scientific method:
- must represent positive changes, rather than focusing on the negative aspects to be avoided;
- must be anchored to a time component and aligned with a long-term vision; to stay on course.
- we need to remove ambiguity and be clear and measurable, with tangible and meaningful progress for those pursuing them.
In today’s stage, I will show you the mental models that increase personal and team commitment to achieving goals and how you can harness this natural predisposition we all have to achieve extraordinary results.
All these notions underlie MAKE PROGRESS, the growth management operating system that, instead of exploiting people, gives them back that energizing feeling of progress and does so by integrating the most advanced concepts of business design and human psychology.
If you want to go deeper and implement it in your work group, get your copy of the manual here (I left some signed), you will receive it in 24 hours.
Let’s get it on!
Strategic goal setting: how our brain chooses goals to work on
Discussing strategy and goals activates areas of the brain related to imagination, memory and visualization. If you’ve ever seen your colleagues with a dreamy look on their faces, now you know why! Seriously, a group of scientists has studied these phenomena using magnetoencephalography (Achtziger et al., in press; Oettingen, 2000; Oettingen et al., 2001).
The moment we consider a goal, a picture of that future appears before our eyes in a completely automatic way.
If we like what we see, i.e., we feel that rush of endorphin that makes us feel good in that new situation, then we begin to compare that desired future with the obstacles of the present, and our commitment to the goal begins to increase, but only on one condition: that we have good expectations of success (Oettingen, 2000). If we believe we can achieve the outcome, the commitment becomes strong and is reflected in our thinking, emotions and behaviors.
Why is it that even for science the budget or budget does not work for goal setting?
When the team leader presents data, the effectiveness of strategic goal setting depends on the clarity of the goals and their measurability. Those numbers in the spreadsheet presented in a cold way are unlikely to make his staff visualize an exciting future! Instead what happens is everyone begins to envision the coming months filled with stress, unknowns about how to hit those targets, and the shadow of a greater level of control.
Pursuing a goal is really energy-intensive, so the brain activates this protective mechanism that allows you to choose your priorities. And turnover rarely is (for everyone).
Reality vs. Fantasy
The phenomenon of visualization and comparison with reality is called Mental Contrasting and it helps to connect the dream with reality, activating commitment and effort in a way that varies according to one’s expectations of success: if one believes a lot in success, one will try harder, while if expectations are low, commitment will decrease (Oettingen et al., 2001).
It is a way to turn one’s desires into concrete goals through two main processes:
1 – Energy
If the goal is aligned with our identity and skills, that is, if the obstacles we face will be challenging enough to teach us new things that we enjoy then our level of commitment will be at its highest (Locke & Latham, 2002; Brunstein & Gollwitzer, 1996; Ryan & Frederick, 1997).
2 – Obstacle planning
When goals fill us with energy we are able to see obstacles in advance and deal with them successfully by forming plans in our minds called “if-then plans.” That is, I can plan with clarity and resolution that if something happens then you can react in a certain way (Gollwitzer, 1990; Oettingen et al., 2001; Oettingen et al., 2005; Oettingen, Mayer, & Brinkmann, 2007).
This is a very important element that is worth dwelling on.
Failure to prepare and plan for the obstacles one might encounter while achieving a goal undermines the chances of success (Gollwitzer, 1990).
People who resort to this thinking model prepare themselves by planning in advance how to deal with future obstacles by spontaneously devising “if-then “plans that have been shown to be highly effective in numerous areas (meta-analysis by Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006).
To test this hypothesis, the scientists-Oettingen, Mayer & Brinkmann (2007)-asked some of the students involved in the experiment to produce their own “if-then” plans imagining corrective actions to what might have gone wrong while taking a particularly challenging course and then compared the results with those who were not required to do so.
Here are some examples, “If I come home feeling overwhelmed by work, then I will invite my partner out for a break.” or “If my roommate has the music too loud, I will ask him to turn the volume down because I need concentration.”
They found that those who had more “if-then” plans performed better than those who faced the obstacles without preparation.
There have been numerous confirmations in other experiments as well, but one condition has emerged: for mental contrasting to work, it is important that the person has sufficient cognitive resources. If, for example, he or she is tired or engaged in very demanding cognitive tasks, the strategy is less effective. In addition, it is crucial that the person already has experience and well-encoded memories of past obstacles in order to recall them during the process (Oettingen et al., 2001).
This is why it is important to avoid multitasking, burnout, and generally focusing on too many goals at once.
The importance of preparation
Where there’s a will, there isn’t always a way. Achieving goals is not only guaranteed by making a strong commitment and setting goals clearly (Berkman, 2016). Research confirms that one needs to prepare in advance to face obstacles so that the odds of achieving the goal remain high.
The desire to achieve a certain outcome, such as, “I want to exercise regularly” or “I want to increase turnover by x%” are called goal intentions (Gollwitzer, 1993, 1999).
But what scientifically makes the difference between those who achieve goals and those who do not are the implementation intentions i.e. one does not stop at saying what one wants to achieve, but also specifies when and how to act. For example, for the goal of “increasing sales by 10 percent,” one might think, “If, at the end of the week, sales figures are lower than expected, then I will immediately call a meeting with the sales team to analyze the causes and define new sales strategies.”
Why it works
Formulating an implementation intention makes the image of the specific situation (the “if” part) very active in the mind, so that when that situation arises, it is easy to recognize (Gollwitzer, 1999; Aarts, Dijksterhuis, & Midden, 1999).
Moreover, the association created between that situation and the planned response (the “then” part) becomes so strong that it automatically triggers the action, without having to rethink it every time (Gollwitzer & Brandstätter, 1997; Sheeran, Webb, & Gollwitzer, 2005).
Inside MAKE PROGRESS®
Within MAKE PROGRESS these mental processes are harnessed at specific moments in the program that promote goal achievement:
- During the compilation of the Strategy Focus Onepager (SFO):
In this phase, the principle of Reverse Engineering is applied. Growth ambitions are defined and, from these, the canvas is constructed, trying to create a direct link between the vision of the desired future and the strategic decisions needed to achieve it, overcoming the current limitations of the growth model. - Activating Drumbeat and Using Project Alignment:
Here teams are asked to acquire two fundamental skills: self-alignment and self-planning. Using the Project Alignment tool, teams list projects that support the strategic objectives and assess their alignment. At this stage, projects that might hinder achievement of goals (e.g., those that absorb resources such as time and budget) are quickly identified and removed to free up space to focus on priority projects and ensure maximum execution capacity. - Check-ins and the “What, So What, Now What” technique:
During check-ins, Qualified Coaches guide teams in leaving feedback in a structured and uniform manner:- What: Each manager comments on the results, explaining the technical causes behind the results obtained
- So what: you understand the consequences measured against the goals.
- Now what: based on this analysis, the next action plan to address the new conditions is publicly declared. In this way, each team member becomes accountable for his or her contribution, ensuring constant “reality check” and rapid planning with maximum accountability.
Through these processes, MAKE PROGRESS® teams apply the mechanisms of mental contrasting, constantly comparing the ideal vision of strategic goals with the present reality. This powerful combination of advanced mental models boosts motivation, activates needed energy and ensures rapid and focused planning. MAKE PROGRESS® is established as one of the most effective systems for accelerating strategic execution, fully supported by the latest scientific evidence on motivation and planning.
If this strategy note has lit any sparks, I encourage you to spread it among your colleagues or with anyone who might benefit from these principles to build more united, autonomous, and motivated teams. The tools you have just discovered can truly transform the achievement of ambitious goals while avoiding strategic debt overload.
To explore the method in detail, you can book an appointment on my calendar or request a dedicated training session for your team on the entire MAKE PROGRESS® toolkit.
Talk to you in the next newsletter; in the meantime, I look forward to your feedback, it matters a lot to me and to the project.
