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HOW TO BE A SUCCESS AT EVERYTHING

How to transform ‘Big, Hairy Audacious Goals’ from unapproachable to achievable

BHAGs can be inspiring, but dangerous when they attempt to motivate to achieve something impossible.

How to transform ‘Big, Hairy Audacious Goals’ from unapproachable to achievable

[Photo: Adrian Rodriguez/Getty Images]

BY Lydia Dishman3 minute read

If you’re sitting at your desk at the beginning of March, feeling a bit blue because you’re worried that you’re already falling off track in hitting your big goals for 2023, you’re not alone.

Big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAGs) are fantastic. They inspire us and give us purpose. They help large, otherwise unwieldy groups of people to organize around a shared goal and each to do their part.

BHAGs can also be dangerous. The Urban Dictionary definition says they are “often used by corporate muckety-mucks in an attempt to motivate mindless underlings to achieve something impossible without regard to potential social consequences.”

Right now, people are still recovering from the pandemic hangover. They are worrying about inflation and wondering if the job market will take a genuine dive or if the pain will stay contained within big tech.

Meanwhile, workplaces are placing big emotional demands on people: to bring their whole selves to work, while not stepping on their colleagues’ toes politically; to integrate racial justice work into their day-to-day.

All of these demands set a high bar for what it takes to create a psychologically safe environment, in which people are willing to take risks because they know they won’t be punished for making a mistake. And, of course, psychologically safe environments are a prerequisite for innovation.

In this context, in the wrong hands, BHAGs can increase the pressure that people feel at work in ways that make it harder to get the best work done, rather than easier. Here are a few ideas to make sure that your organization’s BHAGs maintain their power as potent motivational tools:

Be clear about what you can and cannot control

We generally want the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that translate BHAGs into measurable results to be expressed in terms of outcomes versus actions. But, if there’s anything we’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that externalities (pandemics, wars, recessions) can create new hurdles to jump from plans to actions to outcomes.

That means that it’s appropriate to celebrate the action of making a certain number of sales calls, and to emphasize the learning coming from those sales calls. Yes, the actual outcome you’re aiming for are sales themselves, and you should clearly continue to assess the relationship between the calls and the results. That said, individual contributors need to be able to be appreciated for the actions that they took on their way to the outcomes that those delivered.

Think about your KPIs in terms of good, better, and best

This creates the space to be both ambitious and realistic. It also creates the space to adjust plans as the year progresses.

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Last year, one of our organizations set and achieved a goal for the percentage of new hires who would increase the diversity of the team. This year, rather than automatically aiming for a bigger number, we’re saying that a good outcome is meeting that same percentage, a better outcome is improving by 10%, and a best outcome is improving by 20%.

Celebrate failures, too

If you’re not failing, you’re likely not taking risks. So, why not make it an organizational goal to fail at at least one thing? Wharton professor Adam Grant says he made it a goal to fail a certain number of times a year. That way, he could counteract the sting of failure with the satisfaction of checking “fail” off of his to do list. As an added bonus, celebrating failures will help make your organization’s ambition to establish an environment of psychological safety a reality.

Break your goals into small, doable activities

This is the advice we always hear about our health: If you’re going to run a marathon, you’ll have to start by lacing up your running shoes for a walk. This advice applies just as well, or even better, at work.

At Canary, we work with organizations to deliver emergency grants to individuals experiencing a financial crisis. Over and over again, we see that even when the grants do not solve the whole crisis, they create space for positive movement. Any step, however small, toward a goal, generates momentum.

Give out as much appreciation as you can

Social science research is abundantly clear that the more gratitude people feel and express, the happier they are in their own lives. Savor your wins and the wins of your friends and colleagues.

So, take a moment now and think about some things you’re proud of having accomplished in January. Who helped you get there? Thank those people now. You’ll feel better already.


Angela Cheng-Cimini is the chief human resources officer for Harvard Business Publishing. Rachel Schneider is the CEO of Canary.


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lydia Dishman is the senior editor for Growth & Engagement for fastcompany.com. She has written for CBS Moneywatch, Fortune, The Guardian, Popular Science, and the New York Times, among others More


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