Goal Setting Through Uncertainty

Growing a business requires strong goal setting practices. Being able to take a step back and observe your business wholistically, pinpointing areas for improvement, is a critical part of sustainably growing your business. Regardless of how critical it is, this process can become incredibly challenging even during the calmest of times. With all of the general tasks you need to complete while running a fast growing business, goal setting can often fall by the wayside.

I have found people are even more likely to ignore goal setting when faced with a high degree of uncertainty about their business. This is unfortunate since many of the most critical times for goal setting occur during moments of uncertainty. With that in mind, I wanted to share some of my ideas around how to set goals when the world around you seems impossible to navigate.

The very first thing I like to do is take a step back and take stock of my current situation. What are the known quantities I am dealing with and what is the certainty each of these quantities will continue to be known in the coming months. Not only is this a great way to ground yourself in the reality of what is at your disposal, but it is also a time to realize how uncertain your current situation is after all. If you have many known quantities that are likely to stay known over the medium term, maybe the situation isn't as uncertain as you had feared. However, it is often the case that your current knowns may be shifting from month to month (even week to week given the current economic environment). Embracing the uncertainty, by accepting that there are things you simply can not know is surprisingly liberating as it frees your mind to focus on those things that you have a higher degree of control over.

Once the situation is understood it is incredibly helpful to do best-case, most-likely-case, worst-case scenario planning. Utilizing your understanding of knowns and unknown you are well positioned to play out these three scenarios to the fullest extent possible. I would strongly recommend doing the worst-case scenario first. By doing this you can let your imagination run wild and have a clear idea of what could go wrong and how bad it could really be.

This is excellent for setting your baseline and realizing that even if everything goes wrong, there is still a path to recovery. Next, focus on the best-case scenario. By doing this immediately after the depressing act of playing out the worst-case it can be exciting and uplifting to imagine what happens if everything goes right. Finally, go with your gut and play out what, in your opinion, the most realistic scenario is for your business. There are no right answers here and it is simply meant to help set guideposts.

With that in mind, set a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goal for each scenario. I won't spend time explaining a SMART goal as there are many books and articles that very articulately describe what a SMART goal is and what criteria need to be used with them. What I will say though, is that there is an incredible amount of value in setting these goals for each scenario you just played out.

For the worst-case, these goals can be focused on how to rebound or pivot for the disaster while the best-case can be focused on how to accelerate and continue the string of success you have been enjoying. By doing this you are able to show yourself that regardless of the situation you have an action plan for how your business can best handle the newly unfolded events.

Now, with goals set for these three scenarios you are ready to face the uncertainty with confidence. While it is impossible to know the future, these goals and scenario planning sessions are incredibly valuable. By playing out three scenarios and setting three sets of SMART goals you not only are visualizing alternate futures, but you are planning for how you will respond to each of them. With this in mind, you are well positioned to thrive regardless of what the world throws at you.