The Keys to Effective Goal Setting.
Part 1- Team Goals
One of the key ways to build a competitive advantage for both your athletes and team is setting effective goals. Creating a clear target with your athletes drives performance and provides clarity.
Over the next few issues I will doing a deep dive on the goal seting process I find most effective. This week I will be unpacking the framework we use for setting goals as a team.
None of this is earth shattering news, everyone knows that goals are important. Benefits of setting effective team goals include:
- Create a clear target for coaches and athletes.
- Allow progress to be recognized and measured.
- Bring a teams standards to life.
- Guide preparation and practice planning.
The most common goal setting framework is the SMART goal. SMART goals should be strategic, measureable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.
All of those components are important in setting goals but I have never found the SMART framework has helped me set goals that I go the extra mile to meet. They just feel too forced for me.
I prefer to use the framework that Jim Collins and Jerry Porras outined in their book Buit to Last. Collins and Porras explained the importance of setting a compelling goal that they termed the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).
Collins writes:
"Like the moon mission, a true BHAG is clear and compelling and serves as a unifying focal point of effort– often creating immense team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines."
When Theo Epstein took as President of Baseball Operations of the Chicago Cubs in 2011, he was staring at a 103-year streak of ineffectiveness.
The Cubs had last won the World Series in 1908. The clubs unofficial slogan was anyone can have a bad century.
The Cubs had really not even been close in that time. They were the lovable losers of the league and in many ways across all the major American sports.
Epstein knew that if he was going to change the fortunes of Cubs it required a clear and compelling goal. Epstein took a page from Jim Collins book and created an effective BHAG.
Epstein created the Cub Way and promoted it around the club's offices, and in the locker. The first part of his vision was that the Cubs were going to win the World Series. They would preserve and embrace the history of the club, primarily historic Wrigley Field and they would be good people.
The reality is that all 30 Major League Baseball teams start with the same goal. It is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal as only one will be champion.
How did the Cubs from lovable losers to winning the World Series in 2016? They embraced the next steps of the goal-setting process.
Example BHAG:
The Yorkton Raiders will win the 2023-24 Provincial Championship with all athletes making the academic honour roll.
That is a big hairy audacious goal.
Stepping Stone Goals
Winning the World Series would put the Cubs at the absolute pinnacle of their sport. But how would they go from a record of 71-91 and a fifth place finish in their division (25th out of 30) to #1.
The BHAG is the top of the Goal pyramid. Having a BHAG is important and a great start. Without actionable steps and milestones they would need to meet along the way a BHAG is nothing more than audacious goal that seems impossible to meet.
The next step that Epstein needed to establish was the practical execution of his the Cubs Way.
For the Cubs their BHAG was a 5 year mission. Most coaches in the lower levels of sport do not have that long with their teams but a BHAG can be the overarching long term goal that drives culture and performance or it can be the target for the season.
Regardless, how will you team get to the top of the mountain?
Epstein and the Cubs recognized the behaviours of the world's best organizations, regardless of industry, and built goals around building the best organization in baseball.
They included:
- Hire the best of the best- The Cubs tired to hired the best of the best in their industry, from the manager to front office to player support staff.
- Empower staff to do great things- This was EVERYONE in the organization, players, coaches, AT's, sport psychologists to ticket account managers. They also got rid of the division of business and baseball operations. Everyone now worked for the Cubs and was working towards the fufillment of the Cubs Way.
- World Class Professional Development-Make the best better, by bringing in World Class Specialists to make everyone better. PD was open to everyone in the organization.
- Build the best player development system in the league- Scout, draft, sign and develop the best players in the league.
The goals at this level allowed the Cubs to start incrementally improving moving them towards their BHAG.
Stepping Stone Goals start to narrow the focus of preparartion and performance. If it was not aligned with these stepping stone goals it did not fit the Cubs Way so it was not something they pursued.
For coaches at lower levels, crafting shorter term BHAGS, I would encourage teams and coaches to set 3-4 Stepping Stone goals to foster conditions allowing performance to improve towards the BHAG.
Examples:
BHAG: The Yorkton Raiders will win the 2024-25 Provincial Championships and all memebers of the team will make Academic Honour Roll.
Stepping Stone Goals
- Be the best defensive team in the province. (A BHAG in itself if you watched us play last year 🤦♂️)
- Play fast on offense at a pace that will make us hard to play against.
- Be the best shooting team in the province.
- School is the priority. Make use of time and supports.
Checkpoint Goals
These are the goals that are outcome based that help teams and organizations know that they are on the right track. The checkpoints must be met to hit the stepping stones goals as well as the BHAG.
The first three years of Epstein's time with the Cubs was disastrous. Not only did they not improve from the 71-91 record they actually got worse. In 2012 the club went 61-101 , and 2013 66-96. Safe to say no one was hailing Epstein as a hero after his second season with the club.
But the Cubs were playing the long game and were able to work towards their meeting stepping stone goals each year. Epstein knew they were getting closer to the BHAG becuase they were meeting the milestone goals they had set along the way.
For the Cubs these meant hitting their player development goals. Baseball America, an independant media outlet, had rated their 2012 and 2013 drafts in the top five of the league. Their extended farm system was ranked#4, which was a big improvement from 2011. The Cubs were on the way toward meeting their stepping stone goal of world-class player development.
Their milestone goals in the area of player development were related to how they (which they obviously did not share) viewed their prospects and player acquisition.
This was also a byproduct of hiring the best people to teach, develop and empower their younger players.
They were on the right track.
Coaches need to have progress report targets for the journey to meeting the BHAG. How do we know if the team is headed in the right direction?
I would recommend having one progress report metric that is used for each stepping stone goal. Something that everyone on your team is familiar with and understands.
Example
Stepping Stone Goal: Be the best defensive team in the province.
Checkpoint Goal: Have the lowest FG% against of any team in our conference.
If we have acheived this goal then we are on the right track. If not, why not?
What do we need to do to accomplish this milestone?
Process Goals
Process goals are the last step of creating comprehensive team goals.
These are the most specific goals. They are the goals that are related to the everyday actions, habits and behaviors that the team will take to reach their checkpoint and move towards meeting the BHAG.
By 2015, the Cubs had improved their talent and seemed on the verge of doing something special. They needed one last addition to make sure that their organization was on track to win the title.
Before the 2015 season they hired Joe Maddon as the manager of the team. Maddon was considered the best manager in baseball by those who mattered.
He was added to the team to make sure that the team would meet the final stage of goals. Maddon's job was to make sure that the Cubs daily habits and behaviors were aligned with those needed to end the Cubs 100 year championship drought.
Maddon wrote The Book of Joe: Trying not to Suck at Life and Baseball (which comes highly recommended but remains in my to read pile) and outlines the habits he wanted to instill in his players to help them fufill the Cubs Way.
As I researched the focal points Maddon established in his first season, I could clearly see how the team's Process Goals were all aligned with the team's BHAG, the Cubs Way.
For the Cubs this meant establishing daily fundamental work that ensured players stayed technically sharp. In addition, to regular skill development Maddon stressed the importance of building a competitive advantage by focusing on training off the field.
The Cubs ran one of the most robust Mental Performance programs in the league. Athletes spent time each day working on imagery, building productive routines and mindfulness focused on allowing the Cubs to take each game one at bat, one out and one inning at a time.
Examples
Checkpoint Goal: Lead the province in FG% against
Process Goals Examples:
- Daily work on closeouts
- Focus in practice on chasing shooters off the 3pt line and forcing them to dribble
- Daily work in small groups and team drills on defensive tactics
- Touching base daily on the Key Performance Indicators of the defense, measured each day in practice.
The coaches must have some idea of what they want out of this process. They need to guide the athletes to create these goals.
All of this work and commitment to the Cubs Way paid off for the Cubs. The team made the playoffs in 2015 and the following season broke through and ended a 108 year drought. Defeating Cleveland in extra innings 8-7 in game seven. The team fought off the weight of history and showed resilience in the clutch. Cleveland tied the game in the eighth inning and took the lead in the top of the 10th.
Everyone thought the Cubs were doomed to suffer another terrible gut punch loss.
Maddon and the Cubs stayed calm and stuck to the Cubs Way. They scored twice in the bottom of the 10th, even enduring a rain delay.
He commented after the game:
" The process is fearless, because I don't want to spend time on the outcome,” Maddon explained “For me, it’s really about staying in the moment and not worrying about the outcome of the game or managing toward the outcome. It doesn't do anybody any good.”
The commitment to the Cubs Way and the vision of Theo Epstein's Big Hairy Audacious Goal ended one of the longest streaks of futility in sports history.
What can it do for you and your team?
Can I help you on your coaching journey?
Let's work together.
I would love to help you or your team build a competitive advantage. Here are a few ways I can help:
- Consult with your team
- Teach mental skills via Zoom
- Work 1 on 1 with coaches
- Work 1 on 1 with athletes
Shoot me an email I love to talk coaching and see how I can help you.
Coaching is hard, let's make it easier.
Send me an email at jasonpayne@evolutionmpc.com
Thanks for reading and have a great week.