{"id":27808,"date":"2021-03-24T18:26:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T23:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salesv4.aligntoday.com\/blog\/look-back-to-look-forward\/"},"modified":"2021-03-24T18:26:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T23:26:53","slug":"look-back-to-look-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aligntoday.com\/blog\/look-back-to-look-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Look Back to Look Forward: Quarterly Goal Review and Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m writing this blog on one of the most inefficient inventions ever created.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Typewriters in the 1870s were physical things that used ribbons and moving parts, and if the keys were typing letters too quickly things would get jammed up. Legend has it, that\u2019s how the QWERTY keyboard was born in 1878: to slow us down.<\/span><\/p>\n

This led two professors to invent<\/span> the Dvorak keyboard<\/span><\/a> in the 1930\u2019s, which houses 70% of letter strokes on the central row of the keyboard<\/span>. It took over half a century, but by reviewing what had come before, Dealy and Dvorak had created a better method for moving forward which is used by millions today.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"keyboard\"<\/p>\n

Your business doesn\u2019t have half a century to question assumptions, measure previous actions, and redesign things, so here are four things successful companies do each quarter to ensure they are ready for what comes next: review both short- and long-term company-wide goals, evaluate employee goals, and celebrate successes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Review quarterly business goals<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u201cLife can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.\u201d<\/span>\u2015 S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s true of life is also true of company goals, and they must be understood before new ones are drawn up. Google reflects on their company objectives at the end of every quarter, giving each one a score from 0 to 1 and classing as \u2018successful\u2019 any which score 0.8 or higher.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a quarter ends, are you reviewing each of your company priorities – scoring them, and digging into the details of how you achieved them or why you fell short? Understanding why a goal wasn\u2019t reached can be just as informative as why another goal was, often even more so. As Tolstoy famously wrote at the start of Anna Karenina, \u201cHappy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,\u201d and understanding where things went wrong can be equally informative in both literature and business.<\/span><\/p>\n

Review annual\/long-term business goals<\/span><\/h2>\n

Having short-term, quarterly goals is essential in the fast-paced modern world, but focusing solely on what\u2019s right in front of you can lead a company, and its workers, to lose sight of the bigger picture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The end of the quarter is a great time to make sure that your quarterly priorities are (still) aligned with your annual objectives. There is no point in ticking off all the things on your To-Do list this quarter if they are not helping you achieve your longer-term goals. That is the business equivalent of \u2018The Streetlight Effect\u2019 – looking for your car keys under the streetlight, not because that\u2019s where you may have lost them, but because that\u2019s where it\u2019s easiest to look!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Make the connection between current projects and how they are moving your business forward, and ensure that the next round of projects is building towards your annual goals, as well as checking in on those annual goals and making sure they are still relevant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"cartoon\"<\/h2>\n

Review employee goals<\/span><\/h2>\n

Once you have reviewed company goals, both short and long-term, it\u2019s time to dig down to individual performance. It\u2019s no longer enough to have annual performance reviews with employees: if they\u2019re having problems or underperforming in Q1, you don\u2019t want to wait until Q4 to find out!<\/span><\/p>\n

Many companies find that ongoing performance management is the solution – regular one-on-one meetings (weekly seems to work best ) keep everyone informed and on the right track, with a special focus on achievements at the end of each quarter. Did they hit all of their targets? If not, why not?\u00a0 If so, were they too easy?<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking back each quarter on individual targets will help to ensure that each employee is neither underachieving nor taking on too much. Many workers even find that tracking their own progress helps to hold themselves accountable to what they promised to achieve.<\/span><\/p>\n

Celebrate!<\/span><\/h2>\n

According to writer Christopher Booker, there are only seven basic plots in the world, from literature to movies to everyday lives. Any story will be a reworking of one of these archetypal structures, and the first three of them are \u2018Overcoming the Monster,\u2019 \u2018Rags to Riches,\u2019 and \u2018The Quest.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Those may sound familiar to anyone who has had a tough quarter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once the story is over, however, it\u2019s time to celebrate. Star Wars wouldn\u2019t be the same without the medal ceremony at the end; and by the conclusion of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is celebrating his new outlook on life by giving Bob Cratchit a raise and becoming \u201c\u2026as good a man as the good old city knew.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"medal<\/p>\n

Celebrating success is a key motivational factor, both psychologically and physically. It can be something as simple as a (virtual) high five, or recognition for a coworker\u2019s hard work or achievement; a shout-out in front of the whole team in a daily or weekly meeting; or a team-wide reward for hitting your targets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Having a<\/span> company- or department-wide theme<\/span><\/a> can help to unify teams around a topic or idea, and can also guide the kind of celebration you can have once the hard work is done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Final Word<\/span><\/h2>\n

Setting goals for yourself and your company, and then ignoring them when it\u2019s time to set new goals, isn\u2019t<\/span> smart<\/span><\/a>. If you\u2019ve missed some goals, either as an individual or as a business, there\u2019s still time to readjust and stay on track to achieve your bigger goals.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m writing this blog on one of the most inefficient inventions ever created.\u00a0 Typewriters in the 1870s were physical things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":22436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[251,269,287,286,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-execution","category-strategic-execution","category-strategic-planning","category-strategy"],"yoast_head":"\nLook Back to Look Forward: Quarterly Goal Review and Celebration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Guest blog writer Doron Klemer provides four tips to facilitate intentional reflection and improve your team's quarterly review.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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