Success looks different for every team and project. In this Coffee Klatsch, we welcome Scott Patchin, President of trU Group and Expert EOS implementor, to discuss his meaningful approach to setting annual goals that positively impact an organization.
Top Takeaways:
- The Process is Crucial: The most important aspect of the entire planning process is why you’re completing your goal. Leaders may find themselves working to achieve the same goal year after year with little progress. By first thinking about the long-term end goal, leaders can determine action items for the current year and implement necessary changes to ensure they progress toward their desired outcome.
- Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals enable leaders to practice their predicting muscle as teams contribute to the progress of goals. It’s essential to establish systems and clearly define what success looks like for your unique organization to achieve these goals effectively.
- Unique Measures: In addition to comparing team size, revenue, EBITDA targets for the year, measuring empty seats, billable working hours, and even joy offers additional insight when measuring a team’s success. Drawing from his extensive experience, Scott highlights the importance of measuring joy and its connection to confidence as leaders mature.
Transcript
Scott Patchin: The question I always ask is, “What does ‘success’ or ‘done’ look like for this goal?” And sometimes it is a measurable outcome that impacts the business. Sometimes it’s just a place that’s different than where we are today.
Vince Boileau: Hey friends, welcome back to the Coffee Klatsch, our series where we bring on people that we think are interesting to talk about topics of community and leadership. Today, I’m joined by Scott Patchin, who is an EOS implementer and the president of the trU Group. Scott, welcome to the show.
SP: Vince, thanks for having me on, and thanks for the cup of coffee. I appreciate it.
VB: Yeah, sure thing. I really want to talk about annual planning. So, on page two of the VTO, left-side column, we have this annual one-year plan. And there’s measurables on there, and then there’s a section for annual goals. But I was curious, how do you like to approach that? And what are some ways of setting those goals in a meaningful way that creates impact for the organization?
SP: A lot of times people go into the planning thinking, “What do I have to do?” And the thing to step back on, and the most important thing, is, “Why are we doing this?” And the reality is you’re doing this because you’re either frustrated with the outcomes you’re getting, maybe you’re tired, maybe you constantly have the same goal in front of you every year, and it’s never gotten done for like two and three years. I mean, that’s been a condition of a client that I’ve run into. That’s the first thing.
VB: That’s never happened to us. [laughs]
SP: I know, I wouldn’t expect you, but for the rest of you out there, that might have happened. For me and for EOS, when we bring a team into a room, the process of getting everyone in a room to think through where do we wanna go long-term, as far out as we can see, and then how does that influence or inform what we wanna do this year? And then is there anything currently in our business that needs to get fixed regardless of where we’re gonna go?
SP: The goals are just simply, “the three to seven things that I think we need to do in the next year to get done.” And the next quarter, if you’re doing really good annual planning, you’re checking your assumptions. I mean, if I put a plan in place on January 1st, I come to March and a lot of people think, “Well, the plan can’t change.” I’m like, yeah, no. I mean, if you’ve learned something in those first three months, tweak the plan. Don’t throw it out. I mean, we’re practicing that “predicting” muscle. So the strategic planning process is as important as the outcome.
VB: Some people are gonna tell me, “Hey, whenever you set a goal, make it a SMART goal.”
SP: Oh, yeah.
VB: Right? And so, when it comes to these particular goals, sometimes they can be a little bit vague. Do you push back and say, “Hey, let’s not do vague goals.” How do you kind of add a little detail to those? Maybe that doesn’t go on that document, but should that exist somewhere?
SP: Yeah, I mean, typically you would wanna make it SMART, but don’t be hemmed in because a lot of organizations that are doing planning don’t have a way to measure success. So I totally agree. You have to make it SMART. It’s easier to measure, it’s easier for everyone to understand how they contribute. It also makes you kind of predict what the outcome’s gonna be. And I think when you predict what the outcome’s gonna be, you just practice.
SP: Strategic planning reps is nothing more than practicing being a leader and predicting something that you’re just not sure about. The question I always ask is, “What does success or done look like for this goal?” And sometimes it is a measurable outcome that impacts the business. Sometimes it’s just a place that’s different than where we are today.
VB: But if you can’t answer the question, “What does success or done look like?” maybe some tweaks are necessary. You should be able to answer that.
SP: Yeah, and then if I don’t have the systems in place to get the measure I want, then that probably should be another goal.
VB: I feel like the things that go into measurable—you know, team size, revenue, EBITDA targets for the year—those belong in there. Those are important measurables. I’m curious, you’ve done a hundred annuals now, probably. What are some unique measurables that maybe organizations could consider squeezing into that area? What are some other ways of measuring success that we maybe haven’t thought of yet?
SP: So here’s a couple of different measures that I’ve seen. Sometimes instead of measuring team members, they’ll actually literally measure empty seats. It’s so important for them to get good hires in those seats that they actually measure that. Sometimes there’ll be a little bit of a billable measure around the time spent actually on customer stuff, you know, billable-type hours. So it’s not uncommon to have some of those efficiency measures around labor and things like that. But the “joy rating” is the one I love.
SP: The thing I love about that rating is it kind of pushes back to, I mean, there’s only so many things you can control. And part of maturing as a leader is getting to the point where you can look in the mirror in the morning and kind of being happy with what you see and have the confidence to go out and just lead. And without that—joy kind of follows confidence. And when your joy is at a six and you’re trying to lead at a nine, there’s a three-point gap that you have to pretend to be confident when you’re not feeling it. And that’s debilitating. And so, some of those measures can actually—I mean, that’s probably the one measure I love of all my clients.
VB: Yeah, what a unique way of approaching annual planning.
SP: I love it.
VB: Well, Scott, thank you so much for coming on the show today. I really appreciate your time.
VB: To see more videos with Scott in other Klatsch videos, go to boileau.co and click on the coffee cup.
