...is surely not your motto, otherwise you would not have ended up on a website about goal-setting. But according to David Logan from the University of Southern California for 2% of the US population "Life Sucks!" is their daily mantra. This is Stage 1: the lowest of 5 motivational stages described by Logan in his book called "Tribal Leadership". Do you employ anyone who acts as if they believe this? If so they may need some help and support.

Most probably you do not; but what about those who are at Stage 2 – those who subscribe to the motto: "My life sucks!" According to Logan, this group comprises 25% of the working population. So it is quite likely that you work with or employ one off those poorly motivated, pessimistic individuals.

Things get a lot better in Stage 3, where people say “I am great…” but that’s usually followed by a unspoken “… but you are not!” About half the working population operates on this level. The benefit of Stage 3 is that it is future oriented: deferring immediate gratification to improve the future situation. The downside is that it´s also ‘ego oriented’ (“I am only great because you are not so great”).

Leaders in Stage 3 believe they can force their own goals down everyone else’s throat and they will happily swallow it. But this kind of operation is rarely effective and it can become expensive. You may be able to make people swallow by paying them (or by threatening refuseniks with the sack): so they might even smile as they swallow, but they will rarely digest.

Effective organizational goal setting occurs at Stage 4, where people say “We are great” – this is 22% of the workforce. Here, goals are not pushed down top to bottom, but developed and agreed collaboratively. It’s not a one-way street; rather it is a hub of ideas and insights. Stage 4 organizations outperform Stage 3 teams because their members actually have a personal commitment to the common goals. Stage 4 people genuinely want to perform and will put in the effort required to reach the organization’s goals. Monetary reward is a secondary factor – the satisfaction of achieving worthwhile results is much more important.

Stage 4 is surpassed only by Stage 5: the opposite extreme to “Life sucks!” Stage 5 people deeply believe that “Life is great!” It’s not even about winning – at Stage 5 there is no competition and no lonely winners: instead the focus is on cooperation so everyone wins. In Logans words. “People work together in innocent wonderment.” Stage 5 is extremely rare: only 2% of the workforce operates at this elevated level. It can only be reached by working through Stages 3 and 4.

Goalscape can help everyone in your organization to climb the ladder through these stages. It opens the door to a goal setting dialog and provides a clear, engaging format for discussing the real goals and values of the organization and the people within it. These are the foundations of a successful shared endeavor, and will help you to move to Stage 5. A organization that is driven by the belief that life is great, can achieve things that "level 1 to 4" organizations only dream about.

Watch this great TED Talk by David Logan, and check out Zappos - a company truly immersed in a stage 4 culture.

"Don’t be encumbered by history – go off and do something wonderful."
(Robert Noyce, Co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel)

If you want to do something wonderful, the first step is to decide what that something will be. Goal setting is probably the most significant factor in improving performance in nearly every area of life. Goals are not only great motivators; they provide a focus for your efforts and help you make decisions along the way.

This article deals with the practical side of goal setting and planning. When we set a goal we are actually stating how we would like to improve the world – specifically some aspect of it that we can control. So we can express the goal as a description of the improved situation. How would you like to change your world?

Start with the long-term view: what do you really want to achieve in your lifetime? Many people find this difficult: after all, it could be a long time, with many possibilities and opportunities. So put it another way: what would you really regret not having done or achieved in your lifetime?

Think about what you could aim for in different areas of your life:

• Family
• Career
• Education and personal development
• Hobbies and personal interests (art, music, intellectual pursuits, community, sports and fitness, etc)
• Peer group: career, social and neighborhood

Whatever goals you can think of in each area, write them down – or put them straight into Goalscape!

Once you have collected all the goals you can think of, review them, narrow down your list and start to set priorities. Consider what you have already achieved and how you did it; and where you have failed and why. What does this tell you about your strengths? Where might you need to develop and learn new skills? Answering these questions will provide clues as to which goals are within your reach.

Play to your strengths in terms of your talents and skills; yet look for ways to extend yourself beyond your comfort zone. Make sure you choose your own goals: those that are in line with your own personal values, rather than merely reflecting the expectations or wishes of others (parents, teachers or peer group). Do however share your goals with those close to you – especially where they are involved in a particular area (eg your spouse, boss and other team members at work, tennis partner, etc) – and take their wishes and opinions into account.

Keep breaking down your big goals into smaller subgoals. Set their relative importances according to the contribution they make to their parent goal.

Always be prepared to add or change some of your goals and their relative importance. Set specific targets in the lowest level goals, decide how to measure your progress and enter it into your plan as you go. Checking off completed tasks and seeing your progress advance will make you feel really good! Celebrate your major achievements with everyone who helped you.

Future articles will include specific advice about working towards your goals; some background about why goal setting is so powerful; and how to make sure your goals are meaningful.

Hello Goalscapers!

We are proud to present the latest software update, which includes some major steps forward in both functionality and use. The most important(!) of which are:

Search function: Finds text in goal names, notes, filenames of attachments and Person responsible. We have used Goalscape to manage our whole company since we started – our company goalscape is quite large so we know how valuable this function will be! It also provides an immediate solution for team working: if you enter a person’s name in the search field you can quickly find all the goals this person is responsible for.

Adding and naming goals: After the search function, this was the most popular enhancement that users requested. You can now add a child goal and immediately start writing its name. If you want to add lots of child goals at once you can still do so, using the new ‘Add Sibling’ option.

Icons for common functions: Add Child, Add Sibling, Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete buttons in the Form area. We have also introduced the ‘browser-like ‘+’ tab to the right of the tabs for open goalscapes: this replaces the New’ icon on the File menu.

Language support: Users can now select a German language edition of Goalscape – more languages are coming soon!

Notes text: It is now easier to apply the formatting options and the whole field has a much “tighter” feel.

Attachments: We have simplified the process for attaching files to goals.

There are some more minor fixes, enhancements and additional functions - and many little tweaks to progress our goal to “provide a beautiful interface”! For a full breakdown, check the Release Notes when you install the latest software – then try them out for yourself.

We are already working on the next batch of treats, which will include further improvements to attachment handling, color-coding options, slicker automated resizing for goal names, more ‘hotkey’ shortcuts, standard goalscape templates and improved performance.

Goalscape is as powerful as it is simple. Why? Because unlike standard project management tools it has an uncompromising focus on the question: "What is it all for?"

Why is this so important? Peter Senge answers this question more eloquently than I ever could. Listen to what he has to say in this recent interview he gave to "Soundview Executive Books" (www.summary.com).