Why Start with Why Part two

Why, start with Why?

Colin J. Campbell

Part two - What -  Determining Goals

Armed with the information on your why, now you need to begin to establish your goals, you’re what.  In the golden circle concept what is the product, however when you are apply these principles to personal life, what is more than just a product or outcome it is the motivator, the reason for the why. It is the goals and dreams that we often keep hidden out of fear.

There are definite steps to take in determining your goals.  It is important to write them down in the present tense as if they have already been achieved. Use pictures and graphics to create a goal poster which can be viewed every day.  Write your goals as a positive affirmation which you read daily.  Goals need to be specific they need to be measurable.  You should plan to set short term; one year, mid- term; five year and long term; 10 year and 20 year goals.

The average person spends more time planning their next vacation than planning their career path.  Vacations are fun, planning a career or setting business goals is hard work and something we would rather avoid.  However success does not come without effort and effort needs to be focused, career and life goals do not need to be left to chance, proper planning and setting goals help to make success possible. Finding the right career path can be influenced by having a clearly defined goal.

When our son went off to school my wife found herself looking for something meaningful to do while he was at school. She had spent most of her working career in an architect firm designing schools and houses. She loved her career but had been away for seven or eight years. Rather than just putting out a resume she decided to research the various firms in the area that did home design and pick the three that she thought had the same approach as she did and where she would be able to express her creativity and enjoy the work.  Armed with that information she then applied to all three and was immediately offered positions at two of the firms. She got to choose the one she felt would be the best fit.  Over the next three or four years she enjoyed the challenges of her work and was well rewarded for what she accomplished. Simply by defining what her why was, focusing on the goal and approaching the firms, not with cap in hand, but with a resume that emphasized how she could contribute to the firm led to a career choice that was rewarding and beneficial to all parties.

We learned a lot from that experience and have applied those same principles to every business decision we have made in the last 25 years.  Peter Drucker once said that if you have a problem create a procedure to deal with the problem and it is no longer a problem.  Using the procedure of starting with why, setting achievable and measurable goals and defining how to achieve them will lead to success and the problems will no longer be overwhelming.

A significant amount has been written about goal setting and the value of writing down your goals, there is something magical about the process of putting thoughts on paper and the effects that this has on achieving the goal.   You will be amazed how many of your goals will be achieved when you go back to review the list in six months or a year. It is almost as if the act of writing down the goals ignites an unseen force that will make them reality.  Some authors define it as your subconscious mind, others suggest it is the forces of the Universe that will turn a dream into a reality.  Whatever it is it you have the freedom to tap in to this unseen force, all you need to do is define clearly, in writing what you wish to achieve.

Many of the men who have made significant contributions to business management, such as Peter Drucker and Jim Collins put a lot of emphasis on the value of goal setting from a business perspective. Much of what they have written can be used to develop personal goals and researching what they have had to say on the subject is worthwhile.

 Jim Collins in his books Good to Great and Great by Choice puts a lot of emphasis on how important it is for a company to have the right people on the bus and in the right seats on the bus. In Great by Choice, Collins identifies one of the key character traits of successful businesses to be the fact that their growth was a consistent 20% a year, rather than huge bursts of grow followed by equal retreats.  This is a concept that is worthwhile keeping in mind as you set goals, better to have steady consistent progress over a period of years, steady progress towards the goal helps to reaffirm the correctness of the goal.

Collins emphasizes the need to do a SWOT analysis of a business in the process of setting goals.  A SWOT analysis is identifying the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the company.  The same principle can be applied to setting personal goals, knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are allows you to identify areas that need work to make the goals achievable. 

In her book The Power of Why, Amanda Lang sites the work of Rolf Smith a retired air force Colonel who now helps people and businesses come to grips with strategic planning.  Smith recommends that you mentally imagine yourself as Me, Inc.  With the mental picture of Me, Inc.  you compile a list of your SWOT’s and begin to analyze what you really love to do.  Smith recommends that you form a board of directors with three individuals who you are comfortable with and talk about what you really love to do.  This exercise tends to get you to think beyond the cliché and really drill down to find that which excites you to action.  Smith believes that this exercise will help you to recognize your innovation. 

Smith requires every seminar participant to write down 101 goals and wishes, at the beginning of the seminar.  Everyone is expected to sit down and write the 101 goals and wishes before they go to sleep the first night of his three day workshop.  This is a useful exercise to undertake as you start to work on your goal planning. Writing down 101 goals and wishes opens your mind to possibilities; it starts you thinking about how to innovate.  Take the attitude that you cannot fail, nothing that you can imagine and verbalize is impossible.  The first 25 or 30 will be easy, then it becomes a bit more difficult and some of them will be wild and crazy ideas.  It means you are getting out of your comfort zone and allowing your subconscious mind to think of the possibilities. Don't get discouraged, keep at it until you have 101 goals and wishes, they don't need to be long they can be even one word.  You will be surprised when you surpass 101 goals, it gets hard to stop.

Smith asks his seminar participants to then discuss the goals and wishes with the three person board of directors of Me, Inc. .  He encourages the use of blue post it notes to record good ideas as the discussion progresses. The mind map with post it notes.  Similarly you could use your lab notebook to keep a record of your thoughts and ideas.

Smith also poses this question at the beginning of the discussion, “Who am I?”  How would you answer that question? You may want to take time to think about that before you move on, remember be patient, you don’t get a prize for finishing first in life and today is the first day of the rest of your life.

When we approach issues and problems, whether they are career issues, business concerns or life style concerns what we are really trying to do is to become more innovative in our solutions.  Not accepting the status quo, not following the herd simply because we are afraid is to step out of our comfort zone.  Asking questions of ourselves such as Who am I? Seeking to identify our why are all excellent ways to begin to nurture our ability to innovate and find inspiring answers.

Lang also mentions the work of Claude Legrande the co author of Innovative Intelligence.  Legrande teaches seminar participants to find innovative solutions to problems.  Legrande points out that it is wrong to assume that the problem as initially presented or as we perceive it, is the real problem.   He suggests you must state the problem in the form of a question, and it must begin with How to….  Once the question is stated the task is to figure out the relevant word.  For example, “How to come up with a solution?”  The “a” is the relevant word, it blocks the solution by implying that there is only one solution when in fact there may be many solutions. 

This is an approach that once again conflicts with what we are taught. We are trained to solve problems ---it is part of our upbringing and schooling, solve the problem and get a good mark. However that may not be the real problem and we have not learned to probe for the real solution.  Learning how to do that is essential to innovation and determining what our goals are.  Many of the great discoveries of the past 150 years have come from men and women who might not have been the best educated, but as a result they were not hindered by tradition and were able to recognize the possibility of a solution that did not conform to convention. Learn to write down the problem using Legrande’s opening phrase, use the “what if” phrase to focus in the power of why.

Having clearly defined goals is essential. There are no unrealistic goals just unrealistic time frames. Once you recognize that  becoming comfortable with setting big goals is much easier.  Jim Collins suggests that  you need to have a big wild bodacious goal as one of your long term 20 year goals, you may even want to consider a 100 year goal.   Why not?  Consider the January 2015 issue of National Geographic which points out that it took 4,000 years to get from the Abacus to the iPad,  in the next 20 years technology will allow us to gain an equal amount of knowledge and innovation.   Technology could solve the problem of mortality in the next  20 years,  you may live forever.  In addition, every great family in history began with the dreams and goals of one individual,  Walt Disney comes to mind, his vision was greater than his own lifetime.

Setting goals takes effort, it is worth it, be patient with yourself, write down what you are dreaming about, think like you did as a child. Nothing is impossible and there is nothing wrong with failing along the way.  Impatience with ourselves can sometimes have the most debilitating effect on what we achieve, not allowing an idea to formulate and take root often leads to making snap decisions that accomplish nothing.  Learning to be patient and to take the time to allow an idea to develop and grow is essential to your success.  It is part of learning to have balance in your life, to keep your work separate from your family and your leisure. To live a healthy lifestyle you need at least eight hours sleep a day and you need to spend at least eight hours with your family and relaxing, that leaves eight hours for work. 

Colin J. Campbell, CFP, CLU, Ch.F.C. is Managing Partner of Guidance Planning Strategies Ltd. in Cranbrook BC  he can be reached at colin.campbell@gpsbc.ca