Levels of Goals

In the previous article, I listed common problems with goal-setting. The first issue that needs to be addressed is technically a precursor to the act of setting what most would formally call “goals”. In most cases, I use the term “goal” more broadly to describe any future state or outcome we wish to achieve rather than a very specific and narrowly focused written achievement. Before we start setting “goals” in the more common use of the term, we need an understanding of the different levels of goals in the broader sense: why each level is important, and how each level is used. How can we set goals if we don’t know what we are trying to achieve? SPOILER: not all goals will be SMART! Nor should they be.

I will be approaching this topic from a, mostly, corporate viewpoint. Some of the terms will be seen in different arenas as well, i.e. mission and strategy which are both military and corporate terms. I will lean toward the corporate definition in these cases. I will do my best to share where I take each term from and why I chose it, and when appropriate, share the term’s other uses. Hopefully, by combining and sharing alternative perspectives and approaches, it will help a broader audience understanding.

The framework I am proposing is my synthesis of ideas that I believe creates a solid foundation for understanding the concepts on which I am expounding. This hierarchy is what I have found works best in most cases. I do not expect people to exactly follow this hierarchy every time. The hierarchy of goals I will use is: Vision, Mission and Values, Strategic, Operational or Stretch, and Tactical. Beyond this, you can break tactical goals into a checklist, which is a separate topic that I will not get into here. Each of these goal levels corresponds to a rough timeline, as well as the general level at which the goals are usually set.

•  Vision: Entire life of the organization
• Mission and Values: Entire life of the organization
• Strategic: 5-year - 10-year goals
• Operational (Stretch): 1 year - 18 months
• Tactical: 2 weeks - 2 months

-Checklist: daily - weekly

Hopefully, you can start to see how the hierarchy is forming. Our Vision, Mission, and values are the foundation of our organization and created by the top executives. On the other hand, tactics are executed by the frontline troops and should be created by them as well. We don't want CEOs involved in that level (unless we are in a very small organization and there is no choice). We call that micromanaging. Likewise, we will have one vision, one mission, several strategic goals, multiple operational goals per strategic goal, and multiple tactical goals per operational goal. Hopefully, these relationships are a bit clearer now. Let’s dig a little deeper into each level.

Before we set goals, we must dream. Chances are you have heard of vision and mission statements, but do you know what your company’s mission and vision statements say? Do you know what they mean? For most companies, any employee who didn’t help craft these statements, and probably some of the employees who did help with the creation, cannot tell you what those corporate essentials say. Vision and mission statements are vital to every organization. Whether formal and complex for existing corporations or a somewhat vague, working model for start-ups, every organization has these ideas behind it. The vision and mission statements are inextricably linked and we, therefore, almost always see them together. These statements do have different purposes and so we will now look at them individually.

Vision

A vision statement is the organization’s declaration of where the organization is going, of what the future LOOKS like for the organization, or what the future looks like for the rest of the world because of the company’s impact. Remember, the GPS and address analogies. Where are we going? A vision statement would be several steps before that. The vision statement would be why we are taking this trip in the first place, and not something simple like catching up. The closest I could come to fitting this into my analogy would be something like "maintain the depth of my relationships regardless of distance”. This gets clunky and I don’t want to force it. Therefore, I am going to avoid dealing with the analogy any further here. This is also not an article on creating a vision statement. Therefore, I am going to stay at a high level. Here is LinkedIn’s vision statement:

“Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”

Notice how this is a broad-reaching statement. Also notice how this statement suggests an ongoing process, one that will never be fulfilled. LinkedIn has chosen a vision that they can achieve every day, yet one they must continuously work for. Some companies focus on futures that have not yet been realized. Again, this is not a comprehensive look at vision statements. The key takeaway is that a vision statement explains WHY the company exists. Hence, we must start here before moving down the hierarchy.

What is your vision for your future? Take a few minutes and write that down.

Mission and Values

A mission statement, on the other hand, describes HOW a company is going to realize its vision. Typically, a mission statement describes WHAT the company does, WHO they do it for, WHAT the benefit is, and sometimes gives guiding principles/values. Not all companies will include all these elements in their mission statement. Some companies include values in their mission statement, others have them separate. Regardless, both mission and values belong at this level, written at the same time. Values are a crucial element of HOW the company functions.

In terms of our overarching analogy, we still aren’t even to the point of which friend we are going to see. A mission statement would equate to something like, “maintaining deep relationships by spending quality time with friends in person.” (still clunky at this level) Here is LinkedIn’s mission statement:

“Connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”

From this statement, we now know who LinkedIn serves, “the world’s professionals”. We can also see what LinkedIn wants to achieve, “make them more productive and successful”. Lastly, we know how LinkedIn plans to achieve this mission, by “connecting” them. I like LinkedIn’s approach because both their vision and mission statements are short and easy to remember, yet powerful. It should be easy for every employee of LinkedIn to know/remember and therefore work toward these objectives.

One major note, the term “mission” is the biggest disconnect between the corporate world and the military. For corporations, as shown above, the mission is a very high-level, overarching statement. For the military, a mission is a very low-level, short-run, activity. A mission in the military is a subset of an operation; several levels below where we are now in our hierarchy. For the military, the vision and mission statements would follow under the “political” level of war. The President and his Secretaries and other military advisors are setting these objectives.

Vision and mission statements are vital information for everyone in an organization to know. How can you have a cohesive organization if everyone is not on the same page? How can you expect to get a company to a certain place if people are moving in different directions? How can you expect to have efficient operations if everyone is not moving together? As Simon Sinek says,” Start with Why”.

Strategic Goals

The next level down in the hierarchy is Strategy. Strategic goals are the steps that will be taken to achieve the mission and vision of the organization. I want to be clear that this is different from a “Strategic Plan”. The way I see it, the strategic plan would start with the strategic goals, but also include information from the levels below. The main reason I look at it this way is that strategic goals shouldn’t be fully SMART. When we get to fully SMART goals, we are locking in the steps taken and therefore losing flexibility. Due to the timeline, we are looking at for strategic goals, 5 (maybe 10) years for most organizations, we want to keep the goals broad and flexible. There are too many factors outside of our control that we must react to in a 5-year period.

In the corporate world, strategy generally takes the form of 5-year goals and is created by upper management. In the military, the strategic level is typically handled by Generals, or similar high-ranking officers, and serves essentially the same purpose; laying out the milestones that need to be achieved to help fulfill the objectives handed to them from above, the vision and mission in the corporate world. This is the level at which we are starting to see what we would call “goals”, though, again, they still may not be SMART goals. We will discuss this more in the in-depth SMART goals article. Our analogy starts to make more sense at this level. Our strategic plan for our achieving our vision would describe things such as which groups of friends we are going to visit, how often we will repeat visits, what we want to accomplish on visits; still high-level and broad but beginning to have tangible, concrete pieces. Let’s go a level deeper.

Operational (stretch) Goals

The next level in the goal hierarchy is the operational level. This level is a crucial one, but often the most skipped in the process of goal setting. I have found in facilitating goal-setting, most people need an additional step in breaking broad objectives into smaller chunks. This necessity is particularly true when we look at the timelines outlined above. There is a modern maxim, with no clear origin I can find, which states, “we often overestimate what we can accomplish in a week and vastly underestimate what we can accomplish in a year.” I have found this to be true.

Therefore, by breaking things down progressively we more clearly picture what we want to achieve. The term “stretch” is also sometimes used to describe this level of the hierarchy. My preference is to set “stretch goals” at the "operational level". When facilitating goal-setting, this is the stage where we must spend the most time getting people to go a little farther, to stretch what they think they can achieve. This is the level where we need to be brave and make goals that seem slightly out of reach. Stretching beyond our comfort zone is how we are going to grow.

Back to our analogy, the stretch level is where we will state goals such as how many friends, or groups of friends, we will visit. Remember, we are trying to stretch what we think we can comfortably achieve. But this level is also where we must balance stretching with reality. I can’t visit 400 friends in a year if all the friends live in different states. This is a major hang-up for many people. Vision and Mission statements are not concerned so much with “realistic” goals. Strategic goals are intentionally left broad and flexible to be able to adapt to changing circumstances as well as push reality. Stretch goals, however, are getting very close to “the rubber meeting the road”. Stretch goals are where we start looking at the calendar, the budget, the manpower. We are not assigning these things in detail, but we must begin to consider them. If we don’t look at the previous factors at a high level the next stage will be impossible.

Tactical Goals

Finally, let’s talk tactical goals. This is the level where we will get fully SMART. Now we talk about whether we are going to drive a car, take a bus or train, or maybe fly. We will get into what type of car you are driving, things we will avoid (tolls, certain highways, etc.), who we are going to see, perhaps who else is going with you. We will get all the way down to buying the plane ticket or plugging in the address in the GPS. For the tactical level, we want everything planned out to a level that we can give it to someone else to execute, and they can accomplish the goal without any questions. Since we will be digging deep into SMART goals as the series proceeds, we do not need to invest too much time now.

The last thing to touch on is checklists, think turn-by-turn directions. Checklists are a way to organize tasks, particularly repeated tasks. But I often use a To-Do list for daily and weekly tasks I want to get done. I do not recommend using a to-do list for much beyond that amount of time.

Note that as we move down the hierarchy, our timetable for the level decreases, and the necessary clarity increases. When we get to the lower levels, we must get granular and know exactly what needs to be done, down to specific resources and the amounts of each of those resources. Also, note that the process of goal-setting can be somewhat iterative; in creating lower-level goals, higher-level goals are often refined and clarified. Don’t be afraid of iteration, but don’t get caught in a feedback loop. Goals do not matter unless we execute on them.

Setting goals doesn’t have to be complicated. Having the right tools in the right order makes the planning and executing process much more manageable. Having a consistent system, and using consistent terms/definitions, makes the process easily repeatable and helps get others involved. Essentially, we are trying to make sure we are speaking the same language. With that in mind, this is a very brief description of the hierarchy of goals. From here on out we will mainly talk about the operational/stretch and tactical goal levels. We will touch on the strategic level as necessary. Remember, goal setting will be iterative. Before we start setting SMART goals though, there is still one key issue we need to focus on. We need to discuss maintaining a positive future focus.

Stay tuned.