3.4 The Goal Achievement Model

Once a vision has been created, the next step is to translate the vision into action. This is accomplished by the use of a tool referred to as the Goal Achievement Model. This model enables you to take a strategic concept and convert it into actionable work for the organization. By creating successive levels of detail, you move from a highly strategic concept to one that is tactically focused. The Goal Achievement Model has five parts – vision, goals, initiatives, activities, and measures. The first four are the main components whereas the last is the tracking tool for the model. Measurement will be discussed separately in Section 3.7.

Figure 3-3 shows the relationship among the first four elements of the model. In this figure, the x-axis represents the percentage that each element has as a tactical component. The y-axis portrays the same information for the strategic component. Using this model you can see the relative strategic and tactical percentages that each of the elements possess. Note that as you become more tactical (moving from vision towards activities), you interact with subsequently lower levels of the organizational structure.

3.5 How the Goal Achievement Model Works

The Goal Achievement Model begins with setting the company vision. This is the cornerstone of the overall process. The next step is to identify several goals that support the vision. The relationship is one (vision) to many (goals). You need to be careful that you select only four or five goals. More than this and the organization becomes awash in too many goals and its efforts are diluted. Too few and the organization will run out of things to focus on as it works through the process. Remember that the goal stage is still more strategic than tactical so that goals are high-level efforts.

Next, initiatives are established based on the goals. Again this is a one-to-many relationship. If you developed four goals and for each goal you developed four initiatives, you would have sixteen initiatives. The initiative stage is more tactical and less strategic.

The last step is the development of specific activities. These are totally tactical in nature and are developed at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy. Again there is a one-to-many relationship. Extending our calculation, if we established four activities for each initiative, we would be working on sixty-four activities.

This example points out why we don’t develop more than four of five goals at an one time. If there are more than five, it makes sense to complete one or more of them and then take on the others. If you try to address all of them at the same time, you spread the organization too thin and will probably accomplish very little.

As you can see in Figure 3-4, the significant benefit of using the model is that it creates a clear pathway for the organization to see how a vision can create goals which, in turn, can be used to create initiatives and ,finally, activities. There is a secondary benefit from the Goal Achievement Model: Those working on the details – at the activity level - can clearly see how the tasks on which they are working link upwards to the initiatives, then goals, and ultimately the company’s vision. As a result, no matter the task, anyone can see how it supports the company’s vision.