How can you fulfil big dreams and visions? How can your overall target be split into goals? What further tasks and milestones should you identify to complete your goals?

Creating a plan to achieve success is all about breaking down our overall mission into smaller, measurable goals. From there we can deconstruct the goals to the point where we have a simple activity, a next step, that is achievable and easily actionable.

In this post, we will look at the importance of having a plan and remaining flexible, then drill down into how to break down the various goals. In the next section, we will then go onto how we go further still and chunk that down to the next actionable step.

Have a plan but remain flexible

Whether you are leading others or just yourself, you are much more likely to succeed – in whatever you want to do – if you have done some planning. If you can produce some sort of written plan, so much the better; especially if you need to communicate your ideas with other people.

Even if you don’t need to share your plans, the writing process still helps. That is because writing information down forces our brains to express our ideas clearly. In psychological terms, writing something makes it more real to us and connects more synapses in the brain, which in turn will make the ideas stick and improve our chances of success.

Going through the process of breaking down a mission statement into goals and steps is a large part of the planning process. When these tasks are connected to the people, resources and time needed to achieve each one, we have a complete plan.

When planning there must be a balance between getting the detail we need to act, while maintaining flexibility to adapt to the situation and unforeseen circumstances. To do this we concentrate on developing more detail for the activities that are closer in terms of time than those that are further off. The more distant the task, the broader and more flexible the approach can be. Circumstances will inevitably force you to amend your plan; hence the process of planning is more important than the plan.

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”

DWIGHT EISENHOWER

Turning mission statements into action with goals, tasks, and milestones

To take a mission statement and turn it into something actionable we need to break down the overall mission into constituent parts. We then end up with a hierarchy of larger down to smaller activities.

These various elements can be called different things, but I think about the overall vision and mission, and then break this down into various goals. Each goal is then broken down into key tasks, activities, and milestones. This then becomes the basis for the overall plan.

We might not achieve every single goal or task. We may need to adapt our plan along the way. But having targets to aim for is important as it inspires action, builds confidence and helps us gain momentum.

“A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.”

BRUCE LEE

Once we have a goal we can consider what tasks and milestones will help us achieve our aim.

What is the difference between a task and a milestone? A task is best defined as a piece of work, an activity, that has a certain duration. A milestone is an event, a point in time, that indicates important stages of progression.

Example of breaking down a vision or mission statement into objectives, goals, and milestones: The Shard

Earlier in my career I worked as a project manager on large construction projects. One such project was The Shard in London, the tallest building in the United Kingdom.

Building the tallest tower in the UK was the dream but it was a highly complex project. Not surprisingly this overall idea had to be broken down into manageable chunks to make it a viable project.

The first phase or goal was planning. The next would be demolishing the existing building that existed on the site. The final goal would be to construct the new tower.

Each of these phases had multiple tasks and activities. For example, planning included designing the tower, estimating the costs, and making the planning application. The key milestone at the end of this phase was gaining planning approval which was the green light from the authorities to proceed.

As you can imagine, even for each task there were a myriad of smaller activities that needed to be completed, but when first creating the plan we did not go into the same level of detail for the whole programme. We kept the overall plan as a framework and then added subsequent detail as needed, and that particular stage got closer.

Examples of tasks and milestones for a personal life goal: The Dragon’s Back

The same process, that I applied professionally as a project manager working on The Shard, can be applied to our own life goals. For example, one target I set myself was to run The Dragon’s Back Challenge, reputedly one of the hardest mountain races in the world. The race covers over 300km of mountain terrain in 5 days. Not surprisingly there is a high failure rate. In the year I completed the race over 800 people signed up, but fewer than 200 finished.

For me, the overall mission was to complete the race. It was simple; I had no set time or place that I wanted to achieve, I just wanted to finish.

Each of the five days could be considered a goal in itself. These stages were 60-70km on average and each was an ultra-marathon on their own. Completing each day became the constituent five goals of the overall mission.

Each day was further broken into four stages, each of about 15-20 km in length. These sections could be considered the tasks or activities making up the goals.

Each day had a start and finish line, along with three further checkpoints, that marked out the stages. Each of these points along the route equated to milestones.

So, as you can see, the overall mission (race) broke down into goals (days), which were then further chunked down into tasks (stages), which then had milestones (checkpoints). To achieve my mission, I had to complete all the tasks and goals. Along the way, I could measure my progress using the milestones.

The Right Questions Route Card Tool

To help with breaking down our overall dream, vision or mission we can use The Right Questions Route Card Tool.

A route card is a document that shows the breakdown of a larger route into smaller sections. For example, when you get directions from an app such as Google Maps, it will break down the journey to list each road and turn you need to make.

Similarly, when planning a hike, it is usual to create a route card that breaks down the whole journey into manageable sections, often using key landmarks or changes of direction as sensible endpoints for each leg.

1. Breakdown the overall vision or mission into goals

We can do the same with our own mission or life goal. When creating our route card, we start by stating that overall dream or goal at the top. We then list out the smaller goals down the left-hand column (as per the picture below). The number of goals may differ for your plan but three to five goals is a good benchmark.

2. Divide the goals into task and activities

For each of these goals, we break them down further into sub-tasks and activities. In the table, there is space for up to five tasks per goal.

3. Add milestone to measure progress

The final column is for milestones. Here you can add the measure that will help you know when you have achieved that specific goal or task.

Worked example of using Route Card Tool

For example, your dream might be to start a new career. To achieve this mission you might have several sub-goals such as gaining extra qualifications, researching the sector and applying for jobs. The goal of getting extra qualifications might involve tasks such as choosing the right educational institution, saving up money to pay for the course and then completing the studies. The obvious milestone at the end would be gaining the qualification award but you might also want to add milestones to the other tasks if you find that helpful.

Adding milestones has the benefit of giving frequent moments of achievement. Whenever we hit a milestone it gives us a feeling of satisfaction which boosts our confidence. This is leveraging neuroscience in our favour. Succeeding in a milestone gives us a dopamine reward (the pleasure hormone) which boosts our confidence and helps us press on to the next marker. If we did not break down our overall mission into smaller chunks we would miss out on these little neural encouragements.

Making your own route card of goals, tasks, and milestones

The best thing to do now is to have a go yourself. Take the overall vision, mission or life goal that you thought about in the ‘what’ and ‘where’ sections of The Right Questions Framework, and then use the Route Card Tool to break it down into manageable chunks. You can copy or print out the picture to use if you like or you can create your own template.

And remember, you don’t need all the detail at this stage so use the template to focus your mind on the most important constituent parts needed to achieve your target. Ask yourself:

• What are the 3-5 key goals I need to achieve to fulfil my overall dream?
• For each goal, what are the 3-5 major tasks or activities that I need to complete?
• What milestones will mark the completion of each goal or task, so I can measure progress and celebrate the little wins along the way?

So, having established in previous posts the background to The Right Questions and an idea of their importance, we can now get an overview of The Right Questions and how they are applied to strategic planning and achieving goals, both in a personal or business context. The questions come in an order of sorts but the process of asking The Right Questions is also iterative and cyclical. In other words, the answer to one question is likely to inform an answer to another, and even after we have worked through all the questions we will generally go back and revisit the others to refine our answers.

It is beneficial to explore the questions in two broad groups. The first is comprised of the where, what and why, and these encompass the strategic framing of a situation. The second group is made up of the questions how, when, and who and these help us develop a specific plan within the aforementioned strategic frame.

The two groups are joined by ‘which’ as this question deals with the concepts of options and risk. After looking at the overall strategic picture we use ‘which’ to explore courses of action from which we can choose an option to develop into a more detailed plan. We then return to this same question to weigh the risks as the plan progresses. Looking at these options and risks are the key decision points and can lead us to return through the strategic framing or planning loops again.

Taken all together these seven questions create a template for strategic planning and also become a decision-making process that follows a figure of eight cycle, as demonstrated in the diagram below.

“I keep six honest serving-men, (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When, And How and Where and Who.” Rudyard Kipling

STRATEGIC FRAMING

Why? (Values and Priorities)

The ‘Why?’ represents our values. Our values are our identity; the things at our centre that define why we have the vision in the first place, why we do the things we do, why we attract certain people. They are our beliefs and worldview. These are often things we hold in common with others at one level but the particular combination and application of the values make them unique to us. Knowing our principles shows us what we value most and therefore it also helps us to prioritise and make good decisions.

Where? (Situation and Vision)

‘Where?’ is the present location and the future destination, the situation and the vision. We look at whence we have come from and whither are we going as our journey is bracketed by these ideas of ‘where’. When you get out a map the first thing you do is identify where you are and get your bearings; only once you have done this do you plan to move. And when you move, you don’t want to wander aimlessly (movement in itself is not progress), there needs to be a destination, something we are aiming for. This destination is the dream, the thing that stokes our passion and gives us our drive.

What? (Mission)

‘What?’ represents the mission, the reality of what we are going to do. The mission is the bottom line, the tangible measured difference that we are to make. To work out the mission we need to define success so that we know our finish line. We can then sum this up in a pithy and memorable way to get our mission statement.

REFLECTION INTERSECTION

Which? (Options, Risk and Reflection)

Options

We have to choose which way to go and therefore ‘Which?’ deals with the idea of selection. First, we have to generate a range of courses of options we can choose from. This is a creative process, requiring divergent thinking, and taking time to step out of the purely logical process in order to examine unorthodox ways of problem-solving. Generating these options is something we can do before looking at the how, when and who questions. We are generally faced with various strategy options and we have to select a route by assessing relevant factors.

Risk

One of the major factors affecting a decision is risk. If a venture is deemed too risky it is the surest thing that will stop us from acting, no matter how attractive the option first seemed. To make good decisions we need to identify, assess, mitigate risk and then manage the risk accordingly. Capacity for risk varies between people and situations so it is important to remember that this is an ongoing process of management. At the same time we don’t want to become defensive, timid or risk averse; achieving bold visions means taking risks. We just need to make sure we have counted the cost before we commit ourselves.

Reflection

The option does not have to be perfect. What we are looking for is the minimal viable product (MVP) approach to problem-solving. When an idea good enough to add some planning to it, but then we need to test it. This is where the ‘which’ question becomes the reflection point in the interlinking loops between strategic framing and planning. We test our ideas, reflect and learn from them, then adjust our plans and go again.

PLANNING

How? (Strategy, Goals, Planning and Resources)

‘How?’ is the method or plan by which we achieve the mission. Goals and activities support the overall strategy and propel us towards our dream. Breaking down the route into manageable steps gives us the basis of an action plan and makes the dream an achievable reality. Once we have worked out the detail of each task it is much easier to assess the correct resources we need for each step and therefore, by adding up these resources, we can get a better estimate of the total resources we need to achieve the whole mission.

When? (Timing and Programming)

It is no surprise that ‘When?’ refers to time. Timing is critical. Choosing the right time makes the difference between success and failure and it takes an equal measure of planning and wisdom to know when to implement strategies, to go for goals and ultimately achieve missions. Time is key to planning and is the one truly limited resource. As we overlay our plan with time we create a programme with milestones that help us to measure our progress towards our goal.

Who? (Roles, Team, Structure and Network)

The ‘Who?’ is primarily about the roles different people fulfil, the makeup of our team, the structure of our organisation and the people we connect within our personal network. Sometimes we have a mission and then we go out and put together a team and therefore we need to know what we are looking for. At other times we may need an existing team to adopt a new strategy. In this case, we need to know how best to place people as we re-structure the existing team. Even if we are operating alone, not having a specific team or organisation, we always have a unique network of contacts to draw upon. People are always involved one way or another on our journey and they are the most important resource that we can draw upon.

Now that we have looked at an overview of The Right Questions we will look at each one in greater detail in future posts.

If you want to know more about the background and evidence for the approach I recommend you read:

Beyond the 5Ws: Ask questions like a philosopher, answer as a visionary

If you want to start going through the process I recommend you ‘start with why’ (like Simon Sinek) and read the following:

What are your personal values?

Creating a plan to achieve success is all about breaking down our overall vision and mission into smaller, measurable goals. From there we can deconstruct the goals to the point where we have a simple activity, a next step, that is achievable and easily actionable.

In this post we will look at the importance of having a plan, and remaining flexible, then drill down into how to break down the various goals right down to the next actionable step.

Have a plan but remain flexible

Whether you are leading others or just yourself, you are much more likely to succeed – in whatever you want to do – if you have done some planning. If you can produce some sort of written plan, so much the better; especially if you need to communicate your ideas with other people.

Going through the process of breaking down a mission statement into goals and steps is a large part of the planning process. When these tasks are connected to the people, resources and time needed to achieve each one then we have a plan.

When planning there has to be a balance between getting the detail we need to take action, while maintaining flexibility to adapt to the situation and unforeseen circumstances. To do this we concentrate on developing more detail for the activities that are closer in terms of time than those that are further off. The more distant the task, the broader and more flexible the approach can be. Circumstances will inevitably force you to amend your plan; hence the process of planning is more important than the plan.

“Plans are worthless but planning is everything.”

Dwight Eisenhower

Turning mission statements into action

To take a mission statement and turn it into something actionable we need to break down the overall mission into constituent parts. We then end up with a hierarchy of larger down to smaller activities. These various elements can be called different things but I tend to use these planning terms:

Example of breaking down a mission statement into objectives

Here is another example to explore this concept further:

After a long period of busyness, I feel the need for a break. I want to relax, recharge and enjoy some time away from the hustle and bustle of life. I love travelling and exploring the outdoors, as well as relaxing and generally having fun. These are my drivers, my ‘why’ (principles, passions and priorities) for something I want to do.

I have a dream of lying on a pristine beach, listening to the waves rolling in, basking in the warm sun and sipping an ice-cold cocktail. This is the vision, the idea of a better future that I want to create. This relates to the where stage in The Right Questions approach.

The mission (the what) is the more tangible expression of what success looks like. In this case that could be ‘to go on vacation for two weeks to enjoy some sun and surf’. That mission statement becomes the tangible headline to our plan;

There are various options I could look at by which I could achieve this mission. I might consider going to the Florida Keys, to Spain or the Maldives; but in this case, I am thinking I want to go to the South of France. This choice of options becomes my primary goal or objective under the mission statement.

The planning now involves breaking this chosen goal down into all the constituent tasks such as booking the holiday, the budget and planning the travel.

Planning to achieve goals

Travel is a major factor in the success of the holiday. The journey then becomes a goal in itself — one objective that needs to be successful for us to achieve our dream – and therefore it requires further planning. It is effectively a mini-plan within the greater plan.

Say I choose to drive.  It is a long drive from London to Marseille and so it makes sense to break down the route into stages. With the aid of a map, we could very quickly come up with a plan showing each road as a task and the major cities along the way – London, Paris, Lyons and Marseilles – as the milestones.

Crossing from England to France using the Channel Tunnel could be considered one task but it too can be broken down into several steps such as: purchasing a ticket, passing through passport control and customs, boarding the train, making the crossing and then disembarking.  These are all sub-sets of the activity. Some of these activities may require further thought and planning, and so on.

I work out that the most important thing I need to do next is to book a ticket for the crossing on my preferred date. This becomes my next step; the tangible, achievable next action that takes me a step closer to my mission and vision.

So we see here how in our planning we connect the overall vision and mission through to the small steps we need to make.

Stretch goals

The previous example was a simple one but when we are looking at larger dreams we have in life, and medium to long-term objectives, it is important that we set ourselves goals that are really going to stretch us.  These goals should take us outside of our comfort zones and force us to learn, to grow and to depend upon others.  In other words, there should be a reasonable chance of us failing.

Fear of failure is one of, if not the major factor in not achieving our dreams.  But we should never make a decision out of fear; if we bind ourselves by only contemplating the things we know we can achieve we will stop ourselves from ever doing something really outstanding.  The goals that seem unreachable are the ones that are the most rewarding and life-changing.

Challenging goals also inspire others and one story that has inspired me is the story of Jim Lawless. He set the goal (actually the result of a bet) that he would compete as a professional jockey. Given that he was thirty years old and overweight, had only a year to achieve the task and yet had never ridden a horse before, made that a real stretch goal! You can read the whole story, how he achieved his goal along with the lessons he learned, in his excellent book Taming Tigers.

A stretch goal is the sort of goal that borders on unrealistic. It is generally something that will require some time to achieve, possibly years, and has a large element of risk involved.  It is the sort of thing that you could fail in, but by succeeding you could achieve a significant step-change.

Audacious Goals

Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, describes a stretch goal as a ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’ or ‘BHAG’ (pronounced bee-hag).  He postulates that people and companies that set themselves BHAGs are the ones that have the potential to become great.

If you aim high you may miss the mark but even so, you will most likely strike higher than you would otherwise have done.  The fact is that if you aim low you then you will hit low.

“A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.”

Bruce Lee

One stretch goal or ‘BHAG’ I set myself was to run The Dragon’s Back Challenge, reputedly the hardest mountain race in the world. To complete the race you need to cover over 300km of mountain terrain in 5 days. Not surprisingly there is a high failure rate. Fewer than 50% of those that start the race actually complete it. Signing up for the race was exciting and daunting in equal measure! Once committed it was important that I created a plan for my training and for the race itself.

Questions for goal setting

If you are trying to think of your next stretch goal, here are some good questions you can use to generate ideas. I often use these questions while coaching and can be used with tools such as the GROW model:

• What should I do? What do you feel obliged to do or responsible for doing?
• How should I logically proceed? What goals are a logical progression for you if you continue in the same direction or on the same course?
• Which goals keep coming up again and again? What are your deja vu goals – the things you want to achieve but have never got around to?
• What would someone else tell you to do? Think about it from somebody else’s perspective. What would your family/friends/colleagues expect or hope for you to do?
• Describe your deep wants. What are the desires and heartfelt passions for things you want to achieve?
• If you could have anything, what would you wish for? If someone could wave and make anything happen, what would that be?
• What are your happy wants? Which ideas, pictures or dreams give you the greatest feeling of contentment?
• What are your secret goals? Are there private, secret, ‘naughty’ dreams that you have? The ones you might feel are stupid to share or too personal to tell people?
• When might you have done things differently? Do you sometimes think, if only I could go back, rewind time and choose another path? What would that be?
• Which goals excite you? What makes you think ‘wow!’ Which ideas and dreams give you real energy?

Tasks and Milestones

Once we have a goal we can consider what tasks and milestones will help us achieve our aim.

What is the difference between a task and a milestone? A task is best defined as a piece of work, an activity, that has a certain duration. A milestone is an event, a point in time, that indicates important stages of progression.

Examples of tasks and milestone

Let’s look at another example and consider the relatively simple task. I recently had to get a new garden shed so let’s use that. Building a shed is a  relatively straightforward construction process but it is still sensible to break the project down into tasks and milestones.

Here are some examples of activities and events, see if you can decide which are tasks and which are milestones:

• Work out what type and size of shed you need
• Select the best shed to suit your purpose
• Purchase the shed
• Shed is delivered
• Prepare the ground
• Erect the walls
• Construct the roof
• Fit the door and windows
• Furnish the shed ready for use
• Start using the shed

In this example the majority of the items listed are tasks, but the shed being delivered and starting to use the shed could be considered as milestones. Note the difference here is that a task is something that requires a duration of time to achieve, whereas a milestone is a moment in time; a threshold or gauge of significant progress.

To explain this in another simple way, let’s use the running analogy again. For each day of the race, I had to cover 60-70km on average. Each day was broken into four stages. The task was to run the next 15-20km stage in the shortest duration possible. Any rest stations or checkpoints after each stage on the route would equate to milestones.

So, in summary, you complete the task (the activity) and then pass the milestone (the progress marker).

The next step

The final constituent part of our planning is the ‘step’.  This is the smallest and yet probably the most crucial part.  Defining the first or next step is important because many jobs and goals are never initiated, as it is too daunting to start, or they stall because the next step is not defined.

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”

Confucius

There is something of a psychological barrier when getting going.  A clean sheet can lead to a mental block.  To overcome this an artist may give a blank canvas a simple wash of colour that will be painted over, and a writer may type a few lines on an empty page that may later be deleted.  For us, we need to make a small step in the right direction to get over the inertia when starting up.

Going back to the running analogy, when I have completed ultra-marathons I have had to set myself literal steps as I have become tired. I might tell myself, ‘just run to that next tree’ or ‘run for 50 steps, then you can walk for 50 steps.’ When you still have 50 km of a 100km race to go it can seem really daunting. Just focussing on the next few steps or next few minutes of activity can reduce the chances of becoming overwhelmed and stop you from giving up.

One useful strategy when starting a project is to break down the first task into an easy step that can be completed in about 30 minutes.  If it can be done in 5 minutes even better!  If we cannot do it right now then we plan to do that one step at the beginning of the next day and make sure we set another step for the following day.  As things gain momentum you will find that it is easier to get into the work and complete your tasks, even if they require more time.  The key is often just getting going.

So, to get to that point, remember STEP:

• Start with the overall success or mission statement
• Target success by identifying the key goals that need to be achieved
• Evaluate these goals, breaking them into tasks and activities
• Plan the next step, making it small enough to be achievable

Planning exercise

Now its your turn.

Think of something you need to do. Pick something relatively simple but with enough complexity to test the process. That could be planning a holiday or business trip, purchasing a new phone or computer; have a think a use a real goal that you need to achieve.

Work out your mission statement and then follow the process, breaking things down until you have the next steps you need to achieve. These are the ones that need to go in your diary or be done right now!

Congratulations, you are a step closer to achieving your mission!

If you would like more help with planning, including a free template for your plan, you can look at the post, ‘How to make an action plan to achieve your goal.’

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