2021 Planning: The key question for your team

by Tom Donaldson | Dec 14, 2020 | Commitment, Goals, Results

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2021 Planning: The key question for your team

Whether you are a team leader (Corporate officer, director, mid-level manager, technical team lead) or a committed team member—and many are both—you may find it difficult to imagine your goals for 2021 after the year we have had. I feel that way in my own work here at the end of the year, and I sense it from clients and collaborators alike. How do we get a fix on our priorities when so many things have changed in our culture and environment?

It’s completely likely that your long term goals have not changed. You are still focused on a specific product or service. You still have a critical mission that you want to advance. Your organization’s purpose is the same as you provide your clients and customers an experience of success and fulfillment, made possible by the unique results that you deliver. You have labored over most of the year with remote engagement, back-to-back Zoom or Teams meetings, and no assurance that the world will return to “normal” anytime soon.

In his book, “The Advantage,” Patrick Lencioni outlines a sequence of six critical questions for organizational health. One of them is critical for this pandemic season and helps us see our goals from the “right altitude.” Here is the question we need to ask of our team, group, or organization:

“What is most important to do right now?”

Most organizations have a list of “top priorities” that are pretty predictable. As a result, there is no clarity about which one is the top “top priority.” Often a department that is focused on one priority creates a silo around that goal, and competes with other departments within the organization. These organizational “features” are not effective in “normal” times and are a liability when business success is threatened by something like a pandemic.

Whether you are the leader or a concerned and committed team member, steer your group toward that critical question. Here are a few features of the question:

It results in a thematic goal, a “rallying cry” that can be shared by the entire team, and ultimately your entire organization.
It applies only for a specified period of time—perhaps 3 to 12 months, max.
It requires 4 to 6 defining objectives that will clarify the meaning of the thematic goal. You want a clear call to action, not just a slogan.
It should pass this test around the time frame for the goal and for each objective; If it’s something “we always do” then it is not a candidate for this critical focus.

You can view and hear Pat Lencioni outline this approach in this short video on YouTube (2:19 in length). You can also find other free resources related to Organizational Health from Patrick Lencioni and his organization here.

Feel free to reach out to me with your questions about how to implement this question in your team. I would be glad to schedule a free call or Zoom session to help you explore this important question in relation to your current challenges and opportunities. You can do that right now by clicking here.