Most organisations, although to my surprise not all, have a strategic plan with defined objectives. The challenge is to ensure you have the right objectives. Ask yourself, with the objectives we are pursuing, what question are we answering? Are we even asking the right question?

When it comes to strategic plans and objectives, we have a tendency to immediately start thinking about how to implement the first idea that comes into our head. We start asking ourselves, how am I going to pull this off?

Wait up, what about stopping to clarify what that idea is? And don’t stop there, what about all the other options you could consider? Maybe there is a better way?

And then there is the issue of your motivation. Why are you or your organisation thinking this way? Is it because that is what we have always done and/or that is what everyone else does? What is your motivation?

My suggestion when it comes to objective setting is to dig deeply into what is motivating you. Is it a hostile business environment, a pot of gold you can see at the end of the rainbow, or is it a much higher-order driver like a mission to change lives? You need to know your motivation and be very clear on it, otherwise you can’t ask the right question and set the right objective.