Goals, Priorities, and Strategies (Part 2)

At the end of Goals, Priorities, and Strategies (Part 1) I mentioned a resource to use to help with the planning and ability to track progress. There are two parts to this resource, which was developed by Produktive, the company behind The One Thing. You can learn a LOT more by joining this outstanding community of people looking to build their ideal future for themselves or their organizations.

The resource today I will discuss is known as the GPS. While using the acronym for a Global Positioning System to help provide you the directions you need, the GPS here is an acronym for Goals, Priorities, and Strategies. This GPS provides you with the template to build your own directions to your end goal.

You start by identifying THE KEY GOAL for the year, based on what you have strategized as the most impactful goal. You narrowed down the 20% of top ideas, and then prioritized them in manner of most impact. Now that one is the key goal to focus on. It drives all professional development, is touched on in all newsletters that go out, it is the focus of conversations with higher ups. It is on your yearly staff T-shirt, emblazoned on your website, and on posters around the building.

Now with that goal in mind, decide what are the top Priorities that you need to make this goal happen. Again, you have decided which Priorities fit the goal, narrowed them down, and ranked them in order. To make this goal happen, we need to focus on THIS first. Now that you have that, on to the Strategies.

The Strategies are the specific action steps taken towards the priority that will help you accomplish your goal. The Strategies are also ranked in most important to least, and should be no more than 5, but ideally 3. And you should not move on to Strategy 2 until you have accomplished Strategy 1. With the Strategy, identify a means by which you will know you have accomplished this, set a goal date for this to happen, and identify who is responsible for this Strategy.

Keep going until you have organized your top 3 Strategies, how you will know you are ready to move on to the next one, and who is working on each. Once that is done, you can move on to the next Priority or 2. But, do not try to do all the Priorities at once! Earn the right to move on.

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