{"id":62358,"date":"2022-03-06T17:07:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T21:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=62358"},"modified":"2022-03-20T17:07:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T21:07:49","slug":"wig-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wig-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Set WIG Goals (The 4 Disciplines of Execution)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are “WIGs” or “Wildly Important Goals”? What are some things you should consider when deciding on your WIGs? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wildly Important Goals<\/a> form the crux of the first discipline of the 4DX. These are the goals that should be your primary focus. Once you choose your WIGs, the next step is to choose your team goals that will support the WIGs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to learn about the concept of WIG goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Discipline 1: Focus<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Discipline 1, you will choose which goals to make your top priorities\u2014ideally one or two goals, three at the absolute most.<\/strong> The authors call these \u201cWildly Important Goals (WIG goals)\u201d in order to emphasize that they should be your primary focus. The authors add that choosing so few goals may feel counterintuitive, but narrowing your focus<\/a> is crucial for success because the human mind can only devote its best efforts to one thing at a time<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Although the authors begin this book by separating strategy <\/em>and execution<\/em>, in Section 1 they acknowledge that the lines between the two are blurred\u2014that a good strategy<\/a> must, by definition, be executable. That\u2019s why the first of their 4 Disciplines is about setting effective goals<\/a> and devoting the proper amount of energy to them, which is generally considered<\/a> to be part of strategy<\/a>, not execution. In other words, in order to execute your strategy, you must first make sure that your strategy is a good one.<\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For an organization, senior leaders choose the main goal or goals. Then, each team comes up with its own goals to support the organizational goal<\/a>.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider BHAGs\u2014Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals<\/strong>

If you\u2019re a senior leader choosing a goal<\/a> for your entire organization, Built to Last<\/em><\/a> <\/em>authors Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras suggest choosing something bold, risky, and long-term: what they call \u201cBig, Hairy, Audacious Goals (BHAGs).<\/a>\u201d 
The authors argue that such goals are highly motivating, leading to greater efforts and, therefore, better results than \u201csafe\u201d conservative goals. They say that\u2019s true even though BHAGs<\/a> can take anywhere from 10 to 30 years to accomplish, and even then they only have a 50% to 70% success rate. The important thing is to believe <\/em>you can achieve your BHAG<\/a> and put forth the necessary effort to do so.

Your BHAG should be:

Clear: <\/strong>Make your goal concrete and specific (for example, \u201csell X units\u201d rather than \u201cbe the best\u201d). Couch it in simple language that\u2019s easy to remember and communicate to others.

Compelling: <\/strong>BHAGs are meant to be inspirational and motivating. Therefore, it\u2019s important to pick a goal that you and your employees can get excited about. 

Challenging and risky: <\/strong>Pick something that has a chance to fail, even if you do everything right while trying to achieve it. If you\u2019re guaranteed to accomplish your goal, then you\u2019re not thinking big enough. 

Appropriate: <\/strong>Your goal should reinforce your company\u2019s image and ideology (or the desired image and ideology). For example, a company known for exclusive, highly expensive luxury goods might want its goal to relate to quality or customer satisfaction; it wouldn\u2019t want to set a sales-based goal that drives it to sell cheaper, lower-quality merchandise. 

Note that BHAGs are for organizational goals\u2014they\u2019re not <\/em>appropriate for small team goals. 4 Disciplines <\/em>will explain in a later section that team commitments should be short-term and revisited on a weekly basis.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

McChesney, Huling, and Covey give four rules for choosing team<\/em> goals:<\/p>\n\n\n\n