You have the goal of getting from Point A to Point B.
Point A is your product or service and Point B is the marketplace and closed sales.
So what’s your plan? How are you going to do it? If you don’t know exactly how, that’s ok, but you should have a process in place that helps you get there.
Think of it like this: you decide to take a summer road trip across the country because you want to see friends and family who live in various places while also having some new experiences along the way. You know where you’re starting from: your country home in Virginia, and you know that you want to end up on a beach in California. But there’s a lot of country in between those two locations and you’ve never made a trip like this before… So what’s your process? Would you just hop in your car and start driving without ever making some calls, doing research, or looking at a map or GPS? Or, would you plan it out, think about what you want to accomplish from the trip and what, from your perspective, would make this journey the most successful?
In reality, you will have a lot of planning to do in order to make this trip both functional and successful.
You’re going to need to be organized, coordinated, conscientious, accountable, and — most importantly — goal-oriented.
The same thing goes for businesses looking to achieve their goals.
At estound, we have expanded on an already existing framework for goal setting called OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) in order to achieve consistent success for our clients. We call our framework PMOKR, adding “Project” and “Mission” to the front, which frames short term Objectives and Key Results with longer-term business goals. With PMOKRs, planning looks something like this:
Project: Propose a goal-oriented position to be achieved by a specific deadline, usually 3-5 years in the future
Mission: Declare an undertaking that advances your Project and will be acted upon for the next 12-18 months (it may take 2-3 Missions to achieve success on your project)
Objectives: Clearly define goals that serve your Mission and that are inspirational for your team, easily measured, and can be supported by specific activities
Key Results: Simple, measurable, and actionable items that support objectives
So let’s break down the cross-country summer trip using PMOKRs.
Project: Summer cross-country roadtrip that delivers us in California no later than July 15 and back by August 3rd, in which we will spend no more than $7,000
Mission: The first leg of the trip is to travel from Virginia to the west side of the Mississippi River. We want to complete this by July 1.
Objectives and Key Results for the first leg of the journey:
- Enjoy quality time with friends and family:
- Attend your niece, Susan’s high school graduation in Kentucky on June 28.
- Spend a couple of days with your brother’s family in Illinois.
- Lunch in St. Louis with your husband’s college roommate.
- Experience new things and go places we have always wanted to see.
- Visit Churchill Downs in Kentucky.
- Eat deep dish pizza in Chicago and take a family picture at “The Bean” in Millennium Park.
- Swim in one of the Great Lakes.
- Spend less than $1,800 on this part of the trip.
- Stay with friends and family at least 3 nights.
- Find public campgrounds for tent camping at least 2 nights.
- Whether taking advantage of the hospitality of friends/family, using free hotel breakfasts, or stocking grocery food in a cooler, only eat at a restaurant on average of one meal per day.
The reality is many of us have dreams of doing things we haven’t done before.
While they may seem intimidating at first and others may consider these goals outlandish or unrealistic, they can be achievable if there is a well thought out and actionable process in place. It’s ok if everything doesn’t go according to plan. Some things may work while others don’t, a road closed, or a family member sick, but you should be able to troubleshoot those moments by being well prepared. PMOKRs are an ideal process for businesses to do this.
Remember, great things can come from being adventurous and doing something new, just don’t get lost along the way.
