Author: Renske

You cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs. Things will go wrong, people will make mistakes and plans will need to be adjusted. Companies can choose how to deal with this. At the one far end of the spectrum are organisations that regard mistakes and missed targets as failing. They will hold people accountable for what happened (‘who did it’). Let’s call that the Fear Factory. At the other far end we see organisations that are focused on learning and improving the business as a whole (‘what happened’): the Learning League. In the Fear Factory, people are primarily focused on themselves and their personal KPIs. They will want to make sure to not attract negative attention and thus avoid expressing deviating […]

Setting goals significantly increases the chances of getting things done. The reason for this is that goal setting makes our brain focus on what is important to us. We notice opportunities and threats that are related to our goals and are less distracted by other things. Not any goal will have the same effect though. Goals that deliver results are concrete, actionable, strategic and relevant, i.e. aligned with the existing circumstances, needs and ambitions. To formulate such goals and the related actions, thinking time is essential as well as the quality of the thinking. Concrete actionable goals The first success factor of an effective goal is how tangible the goal is. Generally formulated abstract goals – “I want to increase […]