Setting Outcomes for 2020

On our last working day of the decade, i.e., the 27 thof December 2019, I asked the Artha team to congregate in our conference room. At 5 pm, 24 Artha team members stuffed themselves into a space built for 8, and another 6 joined in from Ahmedabad on Zoom.

First, I enquired how many attendees had written down their resolution for 2020 — it was less than 10%. From that sliver, I picked on the newest hire, to share her resolution for 2020. Along expected lines, the newbie said, “ I want to be fit.”

Thanking her for sharing their personal goal, and I also made a solemn promise that unless she changed how she worded her resolution, she was going to fail. She was shocked, but my reasoning was straightforward.

Her resolution was so generic that even a 100g drop in her body weight would mean that she had achieved her goal. Instead of pointing the finger at their colleague, I asked the team to utilize her example and replace their resolution setting or list of “to-dos” with plans to deliver outcomes that they wanted to achieve.

To help them understand the outcome setting concept, I showed a Tony Robbins video on the Rapid Planning Method (RPM).

As Tony says in the video, it takes a bit of effort to retrain oneself so that we make plans for outcomes, not activities. The good news is that the brain adapts quickly to the new system and starts to deliver fantastic results! I utilize the RPM method for planning and for my weekly reviews with team members that directly report to me. It takes some effort at the start, but I am amazed at the tremendous ability of the mind to find new ways and energy to deliver an outcome. It should not be a surprise that I am a big proponent of this planning method.

I even had a clear outcome for conducting this training. I wanted my team to internalize the message and put the outcome planning into action. Therefore I tasked each team member to share 3 outcomes that they wanted to achieve in 2020. The had to find 3 outcomes for the personal, professional, and social/charitable spheres of their lives in the next 4 days and share it on the company-wide group on Microsoft Teams.

Why share the outcomes publicly?

If writing the outcomes is half the battle, publicly committing to those outcomes is the other half — the winning half!

Because my team (obviously) includes me I, too, wrote down my 2020 outcomes. But in addition to sharing it with my teammates, I am sharing them publicly, today. I had done a similar but unfocussed exercise in 2018. Overall, it delivered fantastic results because of the pressure it put on me. Why then, I thought to myself, should I change something that is working!

So without further ado, here is my list of outcomes.

Professional

1. Increase Artha’s assets under management to over Rs. 300 crores+ ($40 million+)
2. Invest in 25+ new start-ups
3. Pay-out bonuses of 60 lakhs+ ($85k) to deserving team members

Personal

1. Go to Tony Robbin’s Unleash the Power Within with a family member and an Artha team member
2. Author a book
3. Complete 50 scuba dives

Social/Charitable

1. Support a crowdfunding project every week (#FundingFriday)
2. Set aside 2 hours a week to mentor a child (@mentormeindia)
3. Build or Upgrade ONE school along with the Artha team

That’s the list for you to track and me to deliver, let’s roll…

I wish you a happy new year full of achieving outcomes!

1/2020

Originally published at https://showmedamani.com on January 5, 2020.