How to practice outcome-driven thinking to hit your goals in 2021

As per the Harvard medical journal, the placebo effect is all about how your mind can be used to cure diseases. Your mind can be a powerful healing tool when given the chance.

The idea that your brain can convince your body a fake treatment is the real thing — the so-called placebo effect — and thus stimulate healing has been around for millennia.

Now science has found that under the right circumstances, a placebo can be just as effective as traditional treatments.

Can this placebo effect can be applied during any planning and goal setting that generally happens during the new year?

Yes, just like the placebo effect is to health problems, in the area of business, career there are problems that are to be solved. By setting a clear outcome you can get to the desired state. The outcomes are different from tasks, as the tasks are just specific actions that are to be executed to achieve the outcome.

Here is a simple picture to outline the same. Outcome driven means moving from the present state to the desired state. To do this, one must have defined the actual problem to be addressed and identified all the resources required to move from the present to the desired state.

Now, the placebo effect in this context is one of the key resources for you to move from the present to the desired state, which is about developing the belief that the plan is executable.

If plans are made for the sake of it and there is no strong belief that it is executable, then it will remain so. The plan remains on paper!

So to achieve something especially in the short term it is important to set goals and work towards them. The way to set goals is by defining the clear outcome and building the necessary steps around that so that outcome is achieved.

And my own experience shows, the different b/w the goals which I was able to accomplish vs. the rest of the goals which I couldn’t accomplish, is clearly due to missing one or more of the 9 steps below.

Let’s dive in to understand what are those steps that help you achieve the outcome!

Step1: Positive – What do you want?

Outcomes are expressed positively. Positive here means “directed towards something you want” rather than “away from something you wish to avoid.”

Ask “What do you want? Rather than “What do I not want or want to avoid”

Ex:

Losing Weight vs Being Fit & Healthy
Reducing losses vs becoming profitable.

How to turn negatives into positive outcomes?

Buy asking: What do I want instead of or what will this do for me? To reduce debt, you can set up the outcome as improving cash flow or Become positive Net-worth

Step2: Evidence – How will you know you are succeeding/have succeeded?

It is important to know you are on track for the outcome you have set. Right feedback required in the right quantity at right time. There are 2 kinds of evidence,

Feedback as progress towards the outcome. How will you know you are on track? What am I going to measure?
Evidence for having achieved the outcome. How will you know you have got it? What will I see, hear, or feel?

The biggest bottleneck for not able to stick to goals is not having a visual representation of your progress. Recently I wanted to do a plank challenge to hit 4 minutes. Earlier times I had tried but gave up in between.

This time, I made sure I track every day the time, number of minutes I do and ensure 2 few seconds increment over last day’s number. I put up a chart and just tracking this helped get to 4 minutes plank in 45 days.

Step3: Specifics; Where, when, and with who?

Where do want the outcomes specifically? There may be places you don’t want. For example, if you are seeking more productivity you want to increase in certain areas but not in all departments.

Want to buy a house, maybe not in certain areas.

When do you want it? You may want it by a deadline or you may not want the outcome before a certain date.

Ask:

Where specifically do I want this?

When specifically do I want this?

In what context do I want this?

Step4: What resources do you have?

List of all the resources. Resources fall into 5 categories. Some may be more important than others, but considering all the things is key.

Object examples: Materials, technology, buildings, books, programs, etc

People: Family, friends, acquaintances, business colleagues, etc

Role Models: Anyone in a similar role has succeeded in the outcome? Whom can you talk to? Who has written any book on this?

Personal Qualities: What qualities do you have or need to develop to achieve the outcome? List all skills, capabilities

Money: Do you have enough? Can you raise enough?

Step5: Control: Can you start and maintain this outcome?

How much is in your control? What others can do and what you can do to get this outcome? Who can help you?

How can you motivate them to actually help you rather than feeling to help you?

ASK,

What do I do directly to get this outcome?

How can I persuade others to help me?

What can I offer them that will make them want to help?

Step6: Ecology: What are the wider consequences?

Ecology or the environment is very key. You can’t be thinking of starting a new initiative if your environment is surrounded by people who are not keen on new things.

Systemic questions to consider:

What time and effort required for this and what is the opportunity cost?
Who else is affected? How will they feel? Take different perspectives. In business, it will be the boss, employees, etc.
What will you have to give up when you achieve this? It is said, you can have anything if you are willing to pay the price.
What is good about the present situation? What do you want to keep? Losing valuable aspects of the present situation is the greatest cause of resistance to change for individuals & organizations.
What else could happen when you get the outcome? There are always secondary consequences and these become problems in the present situation.

STEP7: Identity, Is this outcome in keeping with who you are?

The key thing is the outcome you seek must be for you. You can’t borrow someone else goals or just because someone got you to want to get the same outcome.

So ask clearly is this outcome in keeping with who you are? As they say, you don’t have to be part of every party in town! Choose those which align with your identity!

So, specifically, you can apply this to the individual as well as organizational level. First the individual,

If you have to manage a project, being involved might mean it requires to put a lot of effort, stay away from home for long hours, work with people you may not be, dropping other projects, It might take you away from the main career path.

Same, if you want to become slim, it may be you have given up going to parties, avoid some friend circle etc.

ASK: What does working on this project accomplish for me? If it is gain experience, then there may be other options.

Similarly, for organizations, Each company has a certain culture and core values that define the company. Company outcomes have to be aligned with this corporate self.

STEP8: Fitment, How do your outcomes fit together?

How do eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

If the outcome is too large, list all the obstacles that prevent you from getting it and set smaller outcomes to get over these barriers.

ASK: What prevents me from achieving these outcomes?

When outcomes are too small to motivating and you are bogged down with details,

ASK: What does this small outcome get for me?

Connect the details to a larger and more motivating outcome of which it is part

STEP9: Action Plan: What to do next?

Once you have put a plan through these questions, then you are ready to act or delegate.

When delegating, always give a wider picture. So the ones whom you are delegating can connect to a larger project.

Make sure, they know how to think outcomes for themselves. This will ensure their tasks are aligned with yours.

Remember the story of 2 sculptures:

Both were asked what they were doing?

First said, I am laying bricks and second said “I am building a wonderful temple”

Guess which builder was more motivated and worked better.

Conclusion

It is human nature to desire positive change but it is equally true our brains are hard-wired to resist change.

For any goals to be achieved, it requires to create successful change at the personal or organizational level. Towards that having a framework that can be followed consistently and improved upon is very important.

Hope the above 9 steps give you an overall idea of how to be more outcome-driven and achieve the goals.

Now, there are 3 other important considerations that are equally important in addition to the above 9 steps is,

Being not just interested but becoming committed to the outcome you are seeking
Making this outcome as No #1 priority for over 30-60 days
Develop self-belief (placebo effect) that the plan is executable

If you keen to get a template to follow the 9 steps, you can find the same here

Best wishes for your goals and if you liked the post do share and leave a comment for me.