The Power Of Finish Lines
“What is the single most important thing going on in the org in the next 90 days that we want everyone aligned on?”
Back in my day, if you made bad grades in school and your mom thought you weren’t living up to your potential, she would order a set of VHS lectures called “Where There’s A Will There’s An A.”
You would learn “dozens of innovative and effective techniques” from the videos, but you would only internalize one: take more breaks.
Apparently breaks boost memory, reduce stress, and increase motivation.
We tend to concentrate more at the start of things and the finish. Plus finishing something just feels good and motivating.
Behold the power of start lines and finish lines.
Are you harnessing the power of start and finish lines in your organization? If not, you should try launching Quarterly Themes.
Here are six steps your leadership team can take as asap as possible to get this going:
Pick a single barrier to overcome or opportunity to seize that aligns with your long-term goals.
Choose one key metric that would represent meaningful progress if achieved.
Create a motivating theme to inspire focus on this priority.
Announce the Quarterly Theme and metric at an all-staff meeting, emphasizing clarity, urgency and fun.
Throughout the quarter, regularly communicate progress and headwinds.
At the finish line, wildly celebrate achieving the metric or transparently assess why you fell short.
The trick is picking a Quarterly Theme that's appropriately scoped - not too small (like cleaner desks) or too big (like doubling your staff retention rate). Something like number of donor referrals or new partners onboarded could work. The goal is to rally your team around an ambitious but achievable priority they can tackle in 3 months.
I’d love to hear your ideas for good quarterly themes! Sharing is caring.
