7. Shared Goals
Beckley Medical was headquartered in a classic industrial building buried in the quiet heart of a Pittsburgh neighborhood. Inside the crisp, white-and-blue lobby, dozens of Beckley’s products were proudly housed in display cases. A portrait of Russ Beckley, the founder, graced the room. Beyond the desks of the office administrators, Kevin Jordan and Quinn McDougall sat at a steel boardroom table.
“Alex has shown me something,” Quinn was saying.
“I can see it too,” said Kevin. “But the senior team is afraid he’s going to come back and go right into his old ways. Alex handed out more goals than we can possibly meet. Then it was ‘push and tell’ or sometimes ‘stop and yell.’ I remember a football coach like that.” Both men laughed at the image.
Quinn said, “Alex has made a good start on his view of the Greater Goal.”
“Same here with the senior management team,” Kevin added.
“So I suggest it’s time to bring Alex and his team together,” continued Quinn, “to finish drafting the Greater Goal as they see it. Then we can move on to the next key practice, ‘Construct Shared Goals.’”
Kevin glanced out the window and saw Alex wheeling into the lobby. “Here he comes. At least he’s not rolling and texting at the same time.”
Alex Beckley rolled past the product displays in the lobby and straight into the conference room just as the senior team began arriving. He clasped hands with most of the team. A couple of people tried to awkwardly hug him as he sat in his high-tech Beckley wheelchair. Kevin called the meeting to order while Quinn drew the now-familiar star on the whiteboard at the front of the room.
Quinn said, “Alex, your team knows that you have been learning about the five actions of high-purpose–high-performance organizations.” He tapped the large hand-drawn star on the flip chart and added the second practice.
“And in other news,” Kevin said in the mock tone of a newscaster, “your team has been learning about the Star Model as well. We might even be a bit ahead of you in the learning curve. We hope that’s good with you.”
“More than good, that’s great. Really great,” said Alex. “It’s amazing how much progress can occur when I’m not around.” He saw nervous smiles all around the table.
Kevin spoke directly to Alex. “And we would love you to join us—to lead us.”
Alex paused before he responded. “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, but my accident was a wake-up call and the downtime has given me an opportunity to reflect. I saw how I was living my life and leading this company. Not so good. Second chance?”
Uncomfortable glances were exchanged among the team.
“You bet,” Kevin Jordan said. Others nodded their acceptance.
Alex nodded his thanks and looked down at his leg cast. “I tried to drive … well, hard. Not such a good driver, I guess. All of you probably have a dozen or more goals apiece.” He was surprised by knowing laughter from his team.
“Too many priorities lead to no priorities, I see that now. I believe we really need to start with one Greater Goal as our North Star and our greater purpose.”
“One goal to rule them all,” quipped Nate Strayer, the chief financial officer.
Quinn looked puzzled.
“What? You never saw The Lord of the Rings?”
Alex rolled his eyes to acknowledge the joke and then continued. “So I now think it is crucial for this team, and then the whole organization, to deliberate about the Greater Goal for Beckley Medical.”
“You must have some thoughts on it,” Sally Smith, head of sales, prodded. “We have been going round and round in the team about what it should look like.”
“Well, mine would only be one idea, not the idea,” Alex said. “But I did have an insight while in the hospital. I think we need to talk about what we value, both individually and as a company. What is it that we care about so strongly that it gets us up and out the door each morning?
“By the way, I witnessed something powerful in the hospital that just might help us. What an engaged bunch! I mean everyone—from the doctors and nurses to the environmental services staff to the parking attendants and security guards. It was really amazing!”
“Tell them what you heard from Michael, the man on the housekeeping staff who spoke with you,” said Quinn.
“Yes, Michael. His title was ‘environmental services worker,’ but he told me he saw himself as a caregiver—and an important part of the hospital team.”
Alex let that sit with his team. Kevin again led the response: “We are caregivers here. We care for those who care for patients through our world-class products and services.”
“Good, Kevin.” Alex wrote “CAREGIVER” on the whiteboard. Alex looked over at Quinn for encouragement; Quinn winked. It was enough. Alex proceeded.
“Let’s work on our Greater Goal,” Alex said, tapping the whiteboard to indicate where he would write down their input. “Let’s push ourselves beyond our stated mission and vision to build something together. We are looking for something that will be hugely positive for many—our customers and perhaps other types of customers we haven’t even thought of yet.”
Kevin added, “And something that will call for the collective contribution of all of us and call each of us individually to greatness. By the way, did I ever tell you all about the last championship year I had in pro football?”
Everyone groaned in mock agony while smiling in good humor. They had all heard many of Kevin’s pro football stories. He was used to their groans and laughed good-naturedly.
“Moving on,” Alex said, laughing. “Let’s brainstorm around elements of our Greater Goal. You have all been working on your thoughts. I’ll record,” Alex volunteered. The ideas started coming from the engaged team quickly. They included
• It’s a great idea to think of ourselves as caregivers alongside other caregivers.
• What if our Greater Goal included more than the hospital experience—the full range of health care?
• Let’s aim to keep people healthy with products that monitor and promote health.
• Let’s have products that follow patients home to continue their healing.
• What if we make our products radically more affordable, even by developing countries?
• What if we added “new to the world” types of innovations to our aim?
The senior team’s brainstorming went on for a good while. At the end, Alex helped summarize. “I think what we’ve done is assemble the outline of our Greater Goal.” He moved back and looked at the whiteboard. “It’s like we are assembling the border pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I recommend that we pull out pieces from our brainstorm that both most resonate with us and stretch us. Then let’s take that outline to the rest of the company.”
“The rest of the company?” Nate responded with alarm in his voice.
“Yes, the company, Nate.” Alex turned back to the rest of the team. “What resonates with all of you and would stretch us?”
What emerged was this:
“I agree,” Alex said. “What do the rest of you think?”
Nods of approval showed clearly that the majority agreed.
“Okay, then,” Alex continued. “Let’s pull it together.” Alex penned a draft Greater Goal on the board: “We aspire to create innovative products that enhance life and health worldwide. We are caregivers and life enhancers.”
Nate said, “I expect it will be a messy process and take a lot to gain buy-in throughout the company.”
Sally rebutted in a lovely West Virginian accent, “I think they are all hungry for this, Nate. They’ll come on board.”
Alex could see Quinn sketching something across the table. When Quinn was finished, Alex reached across the table and pulled it to him and smiled.
“I love it!” exclaimed the head of marketing, Angel Cabre. “This has all the elements of a strong brand, positioning, and purpose.” Alex respected Angel’s talent and was glad to see her energized.
The head of human resources, Matt Joachim, touched her arm. “Our associates want this connection to our customers … I know I do.”
“That’s why I came here years ago,” said Dr. Stan Ralston, the vice president of research and development, known to all as “Dr. Stan.” Others joined in. “Me too.” “Yes!” Agreement and alignment were happening.
Only Nate, Alex’s friend from his days working in Boston, failed to join in. “Hey, I’m committed to taking care of the numbers for this organization,” Nate said.
Alex considered his friend’s comment. Something is off.
“Okay, we have drafted input for Beckley’s Greater Goal. We will firm this up by involving the rest of the company.”
“I’ve got something for us.” Quinn pulled papers out of his briefcase and began passing them around. “Let’s go on to the second practice, ‘Construct Shared Goals.’ In my experience, this is the key to catalyzing aligned, collective action. You might say the point of the Star Model is shared goal achievement. Let’s see what it would take to create interlocking shared goals among this team.”
Quinn looked over his reading glasses. “Many organizations have learned that traditional goal-setting approaches can make performance worse. They can unintentionally create internal competition, short-term thinking, and poorly coordinated work across departments. But creating shared goals, where we commit to collective success, commit to each other, and align to the Greater Goal, can really work.”
“Are we just going to hear about this stuff or do it?” Tony Falcon, the operations vice president, asked.
“Yeah, Tony,” Alex encouraged.
“Do it,” Quinn said. “We have a draft Greater Goal. Now, how would this team go about constructing shared goals that could move the company toward that Greater Goal?”
John Wilson, the strategy vice president, spoke up: “I guess we’ll have to agree on the critical success factors that must be in place—factors like being the provider of choice. It becomes a strategic goal to make these critical success factors a real competitive advantage for us. We will need to analyze business processes that underlie those factors. Our key business processes must be excellent to distinguish us. Then we design the initiatives or projects to improve our business processes. It’s all about strategy design and execution.”
“Exactly,” Quinn encouraged. “Each strategy is how you will achieve the Greater Goal. Each what you agree on per strategy is a shared goal.” Quinn quickly sketched on the whiteboard.
“This is the why, the what, and the how together,” Quinn said.
By the end of the morning, colorful scribblings of shared goals and strategies—whats and hows—covered the whiteboard of the conference room. The team whittled the profusion of ideas down to the five top company strategies and five top shared goals. Shared goals were to be equally owned by each member of the senior team. Privately, Quinn commented to Alex, “Shared goals call for shared leadership, Alex. We’ll talk more about that later.”
Over lunch, the team’s conversation launched into how they could validate and create buy-in to the Greater Goal, strategies, and shared goals throughout the company. Dr. Stan offered his usual sage counsel. Nate spoke only when spoken to.
Quinn was drawn into advisor mode. He offered, “Get an empty warehouse. You can divide up the space with movable whiteboard walls and screens. The local B-school did this and created a similar event. We can use group ideation methods to facilitate input.”
Together, the senior team designed a two-day off-site. The first day would be spent confirming the Greater Goal individually and collectively, making the meaning together. This would be an opportunity for the senior team to both listen and lead. The second day would be spent cascading the company strategies and shared goals into and across departments. Quinn acted as their guide to plan how each executive would facilitate the process.
By the end of the day, the team sat in front of a list of guiding principles for the off-site workshop that would aim to get everyone involved and offering his or her best thinking. A road map for the two days came next, headed up with one of Quinn’s doodles, followed by a bulleted list of the workshop’s objectives.
• Before the off-site, communicate the purpose of the days and give directions for prework. Ask people to think about personal and company values, our shared purpose, and possible strategic breakthroughs.
• During day one, create a vivid composite picture of who we are as a firm—our identity and history. Look together at the underlying values we are living out. Ask everyone to participate in describing our desired future and what kind of community we could be together. Note any differences in the values we aspire to.
• By the end of the first day, summarize the mutual understanding of Beckley Medical’s Greater Goal. Determine what level of commitment has been achieved.
• On day two, create shared goals in support of our Greater Goal. Intentionally bring together departments and teams that must work together to achieve shared goals, even those currently in conflict.
• Aim for company-wide alignment to the Greater Goal, commitment to Shared Goals and Strategies, and mutual support for each other.
What is success? Genuine alignment to the Greater Goal.
The executives sat back for a moment, each in thought. The possibilities offered by the off-site were growing, as was the sense that this could be big for the company. Some people felt uncomfortable with the scope of the work alignment of the whole organization to the Greater Goal. This was a major undertaking. Most sensed a growing awareness that, while leading this change was a big aspiration, this team was in it together and together it was possible. Each senior team member committed to a role in planning and facilitating the off-site.
Various practical matters were then addressed: “Where can we bring our whole company together?” “How will we deal with our entire staff being away from their jobs?”
“Being away for two days will require some serious coordination,” said Alex. “We’ll have to think that through together, but I have a few thoughts. It will certainly take some planning and notification that we’ll be away. We could hire temporary help to monitor and communicate with us regarding emergent issues. Let’s each bring issues and options to our next planning session. As far as where to hold the off-site, Quinn has a suggestion.”
Quinn described a warehouse space in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood, where the two-day event could be held. Once a grand old city neighborhood, the East Liberty community had struggled with poverty, despite being on the edge of a vibrant and growing region of “meds and eds”—enormous investment in medical and technology research universities. But over the past decade, East Liberty constituents had banded together with a new Greater Goal—a community that works for everyone. And it was working.
After a spirited digression into community building, the group adjourned the planning session. Quinn and Alex met alone in the Beckley lunchroom and debriefed the senior-team meeting.
“Alex, tell me what you are seeing.”
“Is this a coaching thing, Quinn?” Alex gave him a sly smile.
Quinn encouraged him. “Good leaders get better by continuously observing, reflecting, learning, changing, and … well, growing.”
“I’m usually going too fast to reflect, so this will require using some dormant muscles,” Alex began.
“What is clearer to you now?” Quinn asked.
“The Star Model, even though you are unveiling only it one practice at a time.”
“Patience,” Quinn said. “One day at a time.”
“I get the Greater Goal as the North Star. I see what it just did for my team. I am excited to use the same process throughout the whole company. And I really like shared goals. Having fewer but crucial shared goals arranged around our key strategies is way better than my approach of giving everyone multiple, individual goals to achieve. I can see how I was suboptimizing our efforts.”
Quinn stood up. “On that note, do you mind if I tell you another story? This one is personal. When we first met I told you about my accident, where I managed to break both legs.”
“Yes, what happened?” Alex prodded.
“It doesn’t make me look too smart. When I was a young man, back when the earth was still cooling, I was adventurous. I was traveling the Continent—that’s Europe, you know—on a rock-climbing adventure on Mallorca with some friends. We started out hooked together, but I wanted to make it to the summit first. Like you, I can be more than a little competitive. I unhooked and climbed alone. It went well, until, well, it didn’t. I fell about forty feet—a near fatal fall. It broke my legs and my pride. My team got me home alive. Having shared goals is like roping in and climbing together as a team.”
Quinn went silent to give Alex a chance to reflect.
“Something tells me you have another card for me on shared goals, don’t you?” said Alex.
Quinn slyly drew a three-by-five card from his jacket pocket and handed it to Alex.
“Love it,” Alex said.
Just then, his assistant stepped in. “Nate Strayer asked me to set up a meeting with you. And your daughter called while you were in session with your team.”
“Her message?” Alex asked.
“She just called to see if you were okay. Sweet girl. You are okay, aren’t you? I said you were.”
Quinn looked at Alex over his reading glasses. “She’s just worried. She almost lost her dad. Find a way to hang out with her. Do something you both will enjoy. Create a shared experience.”
Alex laughed. “Thanks for sharing, Quinn. I will.”