Imagine achieving your most ambitious goals in half the time. Wouldn’t that be great, eh?
Many businesses struggle to turn big-picture visions into actionable outcomes, often bogged down in misaligned priorities or siloed efforts. It doesn’t have to be a struggle, there are some simple step changes you can make to your strategy execution to see results quicker.
Why visions often fall short of results
So why do many visions fall short? A common reason is a lack of clarity behind the vision. In order for your people to get behind your vision you need them to understand it, what it means for the business and for them as individuals. It’s also important for your employees to understand how they can contribute to this vision.
A common sight we see is teams working in silos with very little, to no cross-functional collaboration. Working this way isn’t beneficial for any business, in order to achieve your vision, you need your teams to be working together across different departments /functions. If you want to be seen as the top business in your niche for customer service for example, you need your customer success teams to be talking to your sales team and your sales team to be talking to your marketing teams. No cross-functional collaboration can slow down results which means it’ll take even longer to reach your end goal. This is where your strategy execution is key, what are the big strategic moves and how can you involve your teams? 
Another reason visions often fail is that your teams are overloaded, they have too many goals to focus on leaving them confused and often burnt out. Inefficient execution only slows progress and leads to wasted resources.
How to turn vision into results
Step 1 – Define the vision
As we’ve alluded to, you need to define your business’s vision clearly. Don’t stick it up on the wall never to be spoken about again or put away in a drawer, we want everyone to understand the vision and be brought into it. Make sure your vision is inspiring but also one that can be measured.
Step 2: Break down the vision into specific goals
Use a goal-setting framework like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), to break down your vision into smaller, measurable goals. We start by strategy mapping, taking a look at our bigger goals and where we want to be and focusing on how we’re going to get there. We recommend no more than 5 OKRs, otherwise, you’re diluting your focus, leading to confusion and overworked employees.
Step 3: Align teams around shared goals
When setting your goals you want to involve your teams in this process. Goals shouldn’t be set in a top-down way, when involving your teams in the goal-setting process you’re more likely to get them on board and brought into the whole process. This way you can also set cross-functional goals and understand how different departments are needed to work together to achieve the same results.
Step 4: Create measurable milestones
Key results are used in OKRs to define key checkpoints and set a way to track progress. Set stretch but realistic key results that encourage your people to try their best without asking for unrealistic outcomes.
Step 5: Foster a feedback loop
You must regularly check in on progress towards your goals. We recommend you check in at least once a fortnight. This doesn’t have to be in the form of a strict all-employee meeting, but a short catch-up with key contributors to check progress and raise any issues. By checking in regularly if you need to make any changes, you can do so sooner rather than later. During these check-ins, you can also celebrate any wins, small or big – celebrate them all!
A useful way to check the progress of your OKRs is by utilising a dedicated OKR software, this way everyone involved has full oversight of OKRs and progress made. OKRs can be updated ahead of the check-in to save time, this allows you to run through the OKRs in the meeting and highlight any key points. There’s a lot of OKR software on the market, if you need a little steer we can point you in the right direction.
Takeaways for your business
In order to reach your goals, and to do so at speed, you need clarity, alignment, measurable outcomes and accountability.
Take a look at your own business, are you heading where you want to be heading? Are you on the right path? Do you people understand your vision and how you’re going to get there?
If you’ve said no to at least one of those questions, it’s time to take a step back and re-look at your vision and your process on how you’re going to reach that.
At TBG we live and breathe goals, if you want a chat with our goal-setting experts, you can book a call with them at a time that suits you.