How a thematic goal enables team success

One of the most common reasons teams fail is the inability to prioritise and commit to a common goal.

What makes this difficult?

1.Team members let their ego’s get in the way
People often feel the need to pursue a personal agenda to ensure their own success.  They are unable to see past their own objectives.  This is usually at the expense of the team and often the customer.

2. Lack of clarity
Teams must have their goals explicitly defined.  Clarity means defining, communicating and reiterating goals to ensure they’ve been heard and understood.

3.The goal isn’t the right goal, or it hasn’t been debated
Often leaders implement goals without discussion with the team.  To get behind a goal the team need to agree it’s the right goal, or at least have the chance to discuss it.  Without this, they’ll fail to fully commit.

How do you overcome these issues?

When coaching teams, I often recommend the creation of a thematic goal. A thematic goal is a short-term goal that focuses the team on just one thing.  It avoids the trap that so many teams fall into; the list of endless priorities.

Because everything’s important right?

Teams that have endless lists of priorities are unable to successfully spread their time, energy and focus across all of them.  The thematic goal avoids this by providing clear direction for the whole team with just one priority.

You can define it by answering the question “what’s most important right now?”

Do you want to have an immediate and tangible impact on your organisation?  Create clarity and gain commitment on your thematic goal.