The Benefits of Goal Rotation

High-level athletes alternate their workouts to avoid overworking one muscle group over another.

This alleviates strain and allows them to focus exclusively on one area of the body without losing focus on the larger picture of well-rounded strength.

Leaders would be wise to apply this same strategy to organizational goals.

In an organizational setting, leaders who apply goal rotation insist on a temporary focus for improvement or change without allowing the team to lose sight of the vision, strategy, or long-range goal set.

Dedicating a period of time to give extra focus on a particular goal helps to energize the team by concentrating their efforts in one select area.

By rotating or alternating this focus, leaders encourage people to stay fresh, motivated, and fully engaged. It also promotes innovative thinking.

For instance, consider a team that has the theme of improving customer service in a given month, or a business unit that looks to revamp its recruiting process during the second quarter, or a school that aims to build the listening skills of the entire student body during the first semester.

The key is to align a concentrated but temporary goal within the larger strategy and goal set so that it complements the broader strategy without competing with or adding new goals to an already ambitious agenda.

Once completed, good leaders rotate the long-range goals and find another temporary theme.

Themes and concentrated goals create a cohesive focus, enabling teams to get a lot done. They often make progress they wouldn’t with any other highlight or mandate.

Setting a temporary theme or goal enhances the focus, energizing people and helping to keep them fully engaged. Because they know the goal connects to the long-range vision and will only exist for a short period of time, they dig in and make every effort to create real change.

Some of the best organizations use goal rotation to pair goals together to keep things new and exciting for the team. Goals like increasing sales go hand-in-hand with improving customer service, as an example.

Even when pairing goals, the key is to create a heightened awareness and concentrated effort for a specific period of time. Too little time and the team won’t fully engage and innovate. Too much time and the team will fail to treat the goal with urgency and excitement.

What theme or concentrated goal is your team pursuing right now?

Consider goal rotation to build organizational strength. Energized commitment is a muscle that teams can harness. Perhaps it’s time to work out a theme with your team.