Without goals, no one will do anything! There's no accountability on the team. People don't take their commitments seriously. They give me silly excus

TBM 11/52: Healthy Goals

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2021-06-11 18:30:08

Without goals, no one will do anything! There's no accountability on the team. People don't take their commitments seriously. They give me silly excuses. Whenever I turn around, they are chatting on Slack or on Reddit. I'm not sure what they do all day. It feels like we are going in circles. Without goals, it will be impossible to keep score, and if I need to manage someone out, it will be hard! So yes, goals are important!

The team wasn't stupid. They could sense the manager's attitude. The situation wasn't safe, and the situation wasn't motivating. They didn't feel supported—a self-perpetuating unhealthy loop. No amount of RACI, SMART, INVEST, OKRs, "sprint commitments", OGSM, or [fifty other frameworks] could help them.

I manage a team. I recently found myself sensing that more discipline around goals would help us. But I am also fully aware of all the crappy reasons teams set goals. So I put together this little list to make sure they could hold me accountable for using goals in a healthy way.

I respect your work Dan, but you overpowered the conversation leaving a situation where only you could do the work. We wanted to help. You didn't let us

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