The Power of Objectives

Patti P. Phillips, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer ROI Institute, Inc.
Jack J. Phillips, Ph.D., Chairman, ROI Institute, Inc.

A recent project evaluation brought into focus the power of setting objectives for talent development programs. The setting is a major telecom company, and it involves the entire sales team attending a comprehensive sales training program. We evaluated the impact and ROI of this major investment. In initial discussions with the VP of sales, we asked for his objectives for this program. After some thought he offered two: “We would like to see something like a 10 percent increase in sales with existing customers, maybe within six months of attending the program. We would also like for participants to pick up a few new accounts, maybe at least one additional account every month.” These objectives were very specific. Unfortunately, he was the only person who knew about them.

The program had almost 20 learning objectives focused on all the skills that sales associates need to be successful. In the follow-up evaluation, the results were disappointing for the program owner. There were even comments from some participants stating, “I didn’t realize I was supposed to increase my sales,” and “I didn’t know the company wanted me to obtain new accounts.”

Although increasing sales and obtaining new accounts should be obvious, it’s not always obvious to the participants unless we place the objectives in front of them and discuss them. We need to indicate how and when they should use the skills (application), and the consequences that this should have in their work (impact). This situation brings into focus the power of objectives.

There has been much research conducted since the 1960s and documented in many books, including our books, such as Beyond Learning Objectives: Develop Measurable Objectives That Link to the Bottom Line.1 We are also impressed with what John Doerr presented in his best-selling book, Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs.2 In John’s terminology, OKRs are objectives with key results.

A summary of the research is depicted in Figure 1. If you have no objectives, you may have some performance, but usually not much. In the case of the telecom program, there were no objectives at the impact level, and there were disappointing results, although sales increased. You will have more results if you develop vague objectives such as “increase sales with existing customers” or “obtain new accounts.” That creates an expectation, but it’s not very specific. It is much better to have very specific objectives such as “increase sales with existing customers by 10 percent in six months” or “obtain at least one new account per month.” These are the objectives with key results, OKRs in John Doerr’s terminology.

Figure 1. The Power of Objectives

 

Still, there is another issue, objectives are usually listed as a minimum acceptable performance. This is how we frame objectives in learning programs, for example. Whether it is a reaction objective, learning objective, application objective, or impact objective—it’s the minimum acceptable performance. However, as John points out, if we have stretch objectives, we have even more performance. The ultimate performance occurs when participants stretch themselves.

A word of caution; objectives are tools for progress, not weapons for performance review. We don’t want to remind the participants that they didn’t meet the stretch objective at performance review time. If you do, you will kill any enthusiasm to do this in the future.

In summary, here are the rules for objectives: 

  1. Must be measurable and represent minimum acceptable performance.
  2. Fewer objectives are better than many objectives.
  3. Involve subject-matter experts and key stakeholders.
  4. Keep objectives relevant to the situation, program, and key stakeholders.
  5. Create stretch objectives, but make sure they are achievable.
  6. Allow for the flexibility to change as conditions change.
  7. Failure is OK; process improvement is the key.
  8. Objectives are tools for progress, not weapons for performance review.
  9. Most objectives should be time-bound.
  10. Objectives provide the focus for design, development, implementation, and evaluation.

So, there you have it. If you want performance, set an objective. If you want more performance, be specific. You want even more performance, have a stretch objective. Please contact us for more information.

References 

  1. Phillips, Jack J., and Patti P. Phillips. Beyond Learning Objectives: Develop Measurable Objectives That Link to the Bottom Line. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press, 2008.
  2. Doerr, John. Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2018.