The Goal-First Life-Work Design Framework: why your efforts don't pay off much

Why do we so often work incredibly hard without seeing the results we want?   

The answer lies not in our effort, but in how we design that effort. 

Drawing from an insightful MIT Sloan Management Review study on leadership development programs, this episode reveals 3 critical mistakes that prevent both organizations and individuals from achieving meaningful growth. These same principles explain why many of us struggle to reach personal and professional goals despite genuine commitment. 

The first fatal flaw?... tune in to find out!  

With this powerful framework you'll ensure your valuable time and energy create the future you truly desire, rather than simply keeping you busy with tasks that ultimately lead nowhere.  

Are you just doing things, or are you designing efforts that add up to something meaningful?  

Transcript

Introduction to Mindset and Systems

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey guys, and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Sharina, I'm your host, I'm your transformational executive coach, who is here to help you learn about tools, strategies, research, insights, everything and anything that you need that is coming out in our world to help you change, to help you change better, more effectively. And today is Monday, and on Mondays we are usually doing our mindset episodes, but today I think it's a combination of systems for designing your work, your life, also to hit the goals that you want to see in your life, that you want to experience, so you don't just end up doing things, but your effort actually adds up to something meaningful and impactful. Over the weekend, guys, I read this article, this review from MIT Sloan Management, and the review was about executive and leadership programs. And hey, stay with me, I promise that it's going to give you an amazing insight and a strategy to design your work and life better. So, again, you actually hit the goals that are meaningful to you.

Why Development Programs Fail

Speaker 1 1:20

So the MIT Sloan review was about leadership and executive education programs and how most of them don't hit the mark. Basically, they're kind of like meaningless. And companies do them but they often get frustrated with the outcomes with return on investment of energy, of time, with the outcomes with return on investment of energy, of time. It's like, yeah, we did this, we were all pumped up and we learned all these amazing things and maybe we did some team building and we had fun, but at the end of the day, we look at our company and nothing much changed. Like why is that why our leaders don't change as much as they are getting educated, why our culture doesn't change as much as all the skills that we learn to develop psychological safety and create more trust or create more innovation? And so there are three things that review found, three things that are common and why executive and leadership development programs do not deliver on their hopes, and the same things, okay. So when I was reading through the article, I'm like, yeah, that's why, also, we don't hit our goals and we end up working hard and not getting what we want. Isn't that a frustration? Huh, Actually spending your time, actually spending your effort and energy and not getting what you want. So three common things why those executive leadership programs fail. Number one they don't start with the end goal in mind, meaning the leadership, maybe HR people, culture people, or maybe a CEO or whoever is in charge of choosing the education. They don't start with the end goal in mind, with the business outcome that they're actually trying to improve, like what it is.

Speaker 1 3:29

You want to improve that for the reason that, why are you looking to get the training, that education, in the first place? What skills are we here to develop and why do they matter? If you want to, to, let's say, develop more psychological safety even though in itself it's a great thing to do but is it a priority? Is it directly connected to the outcome? Like, for example, more innovation that you want, or more transparency, better flow of information, less silence? Like is it directed towards a specific outcome? And what is that specific outcome you're looking to improve on the business side of things, not just, again, for the sake of doing that. And if it is for the sake of doing that, then acknowledge that and decide. Well, we're just going to work on the issue of trust for the sake of it and we believe it's important and we don't tie it to any business outcome, right. But then it becomes a little bit challenging if you don't start with the end goal in mind, and the reason is there is limitless choice. There are many programs, the way you can deliver that program, the time commitment, the kind of skills and practices that can be designed into the training. How are you going to make the choices if you have literally no filter for what is better Because better is? There is no universal better Better is always defined by the outcome that you seek to make.

Speaker 1 5:06

As I always say with the diet or nutrition or health protocol aspect of things when you're working on your health or exercise or nutrition program, what is your main outcome? Over the years of my nutrition and health and weight loss coaching career, a lot of people would come to me well, to lose weight. They're like I don't like how I look, I don't like to be weighing this and I want to change this. And that was their driving force, the outcome they were really looking forward to. And, yes, we would work on different health habits and sleep habits and recovery and balanced eating. But if, at the end of the day, they were not getting lighter, they were not getting closer to the most meaningful goal, just like looking better and feeling better about yourself. Guess what it's like? The rest never happened because that was not the main goal.

Start With the End Goal

Speaker 1 6:11

But once we got clear on that goal, we could then prioritize what we're going to spend our time working on and what skills are essential, like understanding energy balance, for example, and what might not be your area of expertise for now, like becoming super knowledgeable about all the different exercise and fitness programs or becoming great at I don't know stretching and flexibility. Might not be your thing right, but in some way it does contribute to your weight loss goals. So the same with the first part of designing well-working leadership program. And what most leadership isn't doing when choosing this education, leadership development program is figuring out what's the goal of the goal, what's the end result, what are we trying to improve here? So the same for you guys what is the goal of the goal? Why are you doing all of this stuff? It will help you out. It will help you to prioritize your effort, your energy, very often, money investment.

Speaker 1 7:12

You can, for example, if you choose a learning module or a book, you can prioritize what book you read. What parts of the book are essential For me. I read a lot of books, but I don't read everything in those books, because I know what specific things I'm looking to understand better, to improve and to develop. So that's why it's so very important to start from the end in mind. The second thing that all those programs don't get and we kind of already are touching on that is the trainings, then, because there is often no specific, very clear end goal in mind, so the training, then the training itself, isn't designed to optimize for that goal.

Speaker 1 7:58

So the practices there is often very little in workplace practice or the practice that is not relevant to the end goal, because, first of all, that end goal isn't communicated all that clearly, and then you end up doing a bunch of exercises, having fun and seemingly doing some progress, like you got better. But is that better, meaningful or just better? And you know, our brain works in this beautiful way, guys If you don't use it, you lose it. And so, yes, you might learn all of the skills in the training, but if they are not applicable to your actual work, your actual life, you're going to forget about them, and there is a very tiny sliver that's going to be retained, if ever. The best cure for not forgetting what you learn is actually learn what you need to apply, because application of your knowledge is the main idea, practice and system for remembering what you learned. Like if you don't apply it, you're going to forget it. You don't use it, you lose it the same with muscle.

Speaker 1 9:15

So the second mistake all the program designers or leaders who choose different leadership development programs very often do is not optimizing what is learned and how it is learned and then not designing practice with specific application at workplace to get a specific outcome. Let's say we are working on our trust because we want to roll out more innovation and for that to happen we need to communicate, collaborate really, really, really well, and for that trust is essential. But then we actually need to design practices, probably around innovation and how, for example, we deliver ideas and exchange ideas and how flow or sharing of information happens right and where trust is the issue. So number one is having a very clear outcome. What's the goal of the goal? And number two, designing actual practices and tracking them. Tracking the implementation, the follow through, how they are done and quality. That also has to be measured. What gets measured gets managed right. So the second thing is designing the training itself so it fulfills on the goal that we design in step number one.

Speaker 1 10:35

And then the third mistake is then impact, that the effectiveness of that training is not measured against the most important outcome, which is often not communicated. So how can you measure against it right? If that innovation goal was never communicated, or maybe the number of rollouts per quarter, per month or number of experiments was never communicated in step number one, then it's very hard to measure effectiveness of your training against it if you never had it right, if you didn't know why you started this health program. So how do you know when you succeed and if you ever succeed? So the third mistake that companies do, leadership does, and we often do when we design our self development or career growth or business growth program, as we don't actually measure the outcome that matters most.

Design Practices That Support Goals

Speaker 1 11:28

Giving you example from my personal life right now so one very important thing in my business right now is cash flow, and so there are millions of things I can be doing to build connections and develop my value proposition and my business model and learn more about how to write better proposals. But what are the vital few at the moment that are going to move the needle of cashflow forward faster? And that's what I need to optimize my learning, where I spend my time developing my business, how I spend my time working, what skills and what things I need to work on. So that has to be optimized for my end goal and measured against my main measuring stick, so to speak. So, is cash flow improving and if it's not, what do I need to change to start moving that needle forward? So those are three mistakes, but before I sum it up and give you some practice, guys, please do if you find value in this podcast.

Speaker 1 12:37

This podcast doesn't run any ads and probably will never do, but it will mean a world to me and to all the listeners that this podcast is going to reach, the listeners that are going to get value and improve their life and work and the world because they listen to this podcast. Let's do it together. Help spread the news, the knowledge, better practices for growing self, growing our impact in the world. So share this podcast episode with one, two, three person, use it as a learning module or material for your group discussions, elevate each other and rate review on different platforms. Guys, would mean a world to me and to all the listeners whose life you'll help me to change. Now back to the podcast.

Measure Impact Against Real Outcomes

Speaker 1 13:25

So to sum it up, what are the mistakes that leadership does, designing all this or choosing those leadership development programs, why they become just another item on profit and losses sheet instead of being real investment into business outcomes. So mistake number one trainings are not chosen and are designed with the end goal in mind. What's the goal of the goal? What is actually meaningful difference that we are trying to make here? Number two then the whole training is not designed for that goal, this ultimate outcome, because we never spend time designing that outcome. So the practices, the measuring, the tracking isn't designed to optimize for that end goal, that meaningful business outcome. And number three then the effectiveness of the training is measured by how participants liked it, how they were engaged, how I don't know likely they recommend it to other companies or coworkers, or how they like the trainer. We measure all of that, but not the actual outcome. How did that training like hard truth? How did that training yeah, maybe it's not gonna happen the next day, but over the course of the next three months how did that training contributed to some meaningful business outcome we all care about here, and guys work team is not a family. So we get together at our workplace to do something, to deliver meaningful result in the world. And so, no matter how you twist it, at the end of the day we're still a team gathering together for an outcome. So where we spend our time collectively energy, resources, money, time has to be defined by the outcomes that we are here to create together. So, number one no end goal in mind. Number two not designing the training to fulfill that goal, to satisfy that goal, to make progress on that goal. Number three not measuring everything, the effectiveness of the training, against that ultimate outcome.

Speaker 1 15:48

Now let's get back to you and me. Why does it matter to you and me guys? Well, because it's not about leadership development, it's about our life. You can work all your life very hard and never actually get what you want. All your life very hard and never actually get what you want. Like wouldn't that be a waste and frustration? We say we want something more growth, better health, stronger relationship, thriving business, inspiring career but we often don't design our efforts to achieve exactly that. Like, what is that? How do we measure our success? How do we know when we succeed? We just do things randomly, repeatedly, hopefully.

Speaker 1 16:30

We read books, but the wrong ones or with no application, and follow up, somehow hoping that because we read a book, it's just going to show up in our life. But we all know like we read books and read books and read books and then like at the end of the year, I didn, I didn't really get better at that. I wonder, why is that? So we exercise, but in a way that makes us hungry and we never get to the shape of our lives that we are proud to see in the mirror. We work more, but not on the things that bring in revenue or fulfillment or impactful, meaningful growth, and then we just end up doing more with not getting much more, or at least it feels like it.

Speaker 1 17:12

The problem isn't our effort, it's not your effort, guys. It's the design of your effort. Start with the end in mind, then reverse engineer the experience to match that end and measure your effort. Effectiveness of your effort against that end Doesn't matter how many hours you work if you're working on the wrong things, guys. So are you doing that or are you just doing things?

Applying This Framework to Your Life

Speaker 1 17:44

So these are the questions I want you to live with today, guys. Are you doing this? Starting with the end in mind, reverse engineering the experience to match and measuring your effort against that ultimate goal. Are you doing this or are you just doing things? So look at your day You're spending your hours doing something. Is this something Adds up to something meaningful. Hope this podcast was revelational, if there is such a word. English is not my first language. Hope this podcast helped you, or is helping you to become a bigger future, you that you're just proud of and that you love seeing evolving. So hope this podcast is serving this purpose. Again, don't forget to share, rate, review and, till next time, do the efforts that add up to something meaningful and keep growing.