Timestamps

00:00:00: Introduction

00:01:32: Idea for action 1: zoom in/zoom out goal-setting

00:03:23: Idea for action 2: be clear about the from/to

00:05:44: Useful resource

00:06:42: Final thoughts

Interview Transcription

Helen Tupper: Welcome to the penultimate episode of the Squiggly Careers Skills Sprint.  Are you excited?

Sarah Ellis: Yes.

Helen Tupper: It's like we're nearly there.  I think everyone's been sprinting for quite a long time.  19, this is 19 skills that you have invested in learning as part of this sprint.  So, I'm proud of our listeners.

Sarah Ellis: Good.

Helen Tupper: Great.  I mean, she's proud too.  It's like it's deep, it's deep in her. 

So, for this skill, we're going to talk about goal-setting.  I think goal-setting can feel a bit intimidating.  You know when you think of goals, you feel like there should be these massive achievements that we should all be aiming for.  But I think if you don't have goals, the risk is you can be a bit aimless and perhaps maybe spreading your attention across too many things; there's always lots of demands on our days; we're always very busy. 

And I think when you don't have goals, often the signal that it's not working is, you get to an end of a week, or often maybe an end of a quarter or a year, and you don't really feel like you've moved forward in a way that you feel proud of.  So you've sort of not made the progress that you were hoping to make.  Maybe you've made progress that was important to other people, but then, "Have I actually moved on something that makes a difference to me, that feels meaningful for me?" So, I don't think you have to have loads of goals, but I do think knowing what change you want to make, what matters to you within this month or within this quarter, can just help you to focus, focus on what's important to you.  So, how do you set and stick to goals, Helen?

Helen Tupper: Oh, set; I think that is actually useful.  Setting and sticking leads nicely into my idea for action, which is about zoom in/zoom out goal-setting.  So, the setting for me is the zoom out.  So, let's say, "What do I want to achieve by the end of the year?"  And I might think there's a particular programme that I want us to launch for Squiggly Skills by the end of the year.  So, that's kind of nice, a goal-setting.  Just saying that for me does not mean I'm going to stick to it, because it feels quite far away, it's kind of a nice to do, but I've got so many urgent and important things that might get in the way of that.

So, as well as having the zoom-out goal, I need to have a zoom-in goal.  And the way I do that, so let's say there's something we want to launch by the end of the year.  What I will then do is I'll sort of break that time period in half.  So, I'll say, "Okay, so in the next three months, I need to achieve that in order to get to here".  And then I break it down again, so in that scenario, I break it down into three months and I'd be like, "Okay, so if I want to achieve that in three months, then what do I need to do each month to get to there?"  And sometimes a month's enough.  

Like for me, I might go, "Okay, so by the end of the month, I need to achieve that", and that's all I focus on, because it's almost like dominoes in terms of the goal.  I know if I just do that thing that month and that thing that month, then it all adds up to the outcome that I'm working towards. The thing I would say is, that time period is very dependent on what you want to achieve and by when.  So, I always just start with the zoom-out bit, and then I divide the time appropriately; I halve it first and then I halve it again, or do it in thirds, whatever works.  But all I do is work towards the next zoom-in goal, and I just trust that if that's what I do, that domino falls and it takes me to the next one.  And I just find that more motivating than working towards this big thing over here that I'm probably going to get distracted by, if that's the only thing I focus on.  So, setting and sticking by doing the zoom out and the zoom in is what works for me.

Sarah Ellis: I've been having quite a few conversations with our team about their goals for the year ahead.  So, I was like, "Oh, this feels very timely".  And one of the prompts that I keep coming back to is making sure that goals don't exist in a vacuum, that you are clear about the from and to. 

Because I think there is pretty much always a from and to when you're thinking about a goal.  Because the from could be, "I know nothing about AI".  That's my from, that's my starting point; to, "I want to make sure I'm experimenting every week with a new way of adding AI into what I do at work", and that is a really clear from and to goal.  And I think if you don't have that, you perhaps miss out on the milestones of progress along the way, so your zoom-in point.  But also, you perhaps just don't have the clarity on, "How will I know when I've met that goal?  How do I know what success looks like?"

Now, sometimes it's easier I think if there's a number.  So, if you were talking about a goal of doubling the size of podcast listeners, it's not an easy goal to achieve, but it's an easy one to know whether you've hit or miss, it's so obvious.  And I do think quite a lot of our work now, people won't always have that number to anchor on.  But I think challenging yourself to be like, "Well, where am I today?  And where do I want to be?" and that really important point of like, "How will I know if I've reached the goal?  And how do I make sure that I keep measuring that and keep coming back to it?" 

So, is that through a conversation that I'm having with my manager?  Once a month, do I review in a one-to-one with my manager my goals for the quarter and the progress that I'm making?  And I guess the way that we often do that together is we use our Win Watch.  Helen and I have our quarterly Win Watch, which essentially is our goals, a sort of zoomed-in goal-setting, which is always connected to our zoomed-out goals.  That's our way of doing zoomed in.  

And every probably two or three weeks, we often don't even talk to each other about it, but it's just like online using Teams, we're going, "Right, okay, so what's the progress we've made; where are we?"  But all of those goals I think have that kind of from-to sensibility behind them, and it's just a technique that I always find useful.  And if I can't answer it, I find that useful because I'm like, "Oh, I don't really know where I'm starting from", or, "I don't really know where I'm trying to get to". 

Chances are, if you are too abstract, you are never going to get to the goal. And our recommended expert here is Cath Bishop.  So, Cath wrote a brilliant book called The Long Win, which actually she's just updated with an extra chapter and some new insights, so it's worth checking out.  She's been on our podcast before, so she is so curious, she's such a learn-it-all.  And one of the things that she talks about is the importance of setting learning goals, which obviously we love.  And I think often when we have goals related to our day jobs, because we either have to, and they are useful, but I do always ask people in workshops, "What's one learning goal you've got for this year?" 

And often, I get silence/tumbleweed.  And I'm a bit like, "Oh, just have one learning goal.  You don't need to have loads of goals".  But I'm often inspired by her work because she does encourage us to sort of think beyond the moment and particularly to zoom out.  I think a lot of us are better at the zoomed in because that's the pressures and what's coming our way in the moment, and she will really challenge you to think a bit bigger.

Helen Tupper: So, that is the end of Skill19.  There is one more to go.  It is on storytelling, and that means your Squiggly Sprint badge for completing the Sprint is in sight, so make sure you come back for that final episode.