Do Targets Really Matter???

Jamie O'Sullivan
Aug 22, 2017 · 4 min read

We’ve all been exposed to targets, goals that everyone around us, including ourselves, relentlessly try to hit at all costs. Furthermore, if we don’t hit those targets in a specific timeframe, we consider our efforts to have been a failure.

We adopt this “target mentality” in various aspects of our lives: personal weight loss targets to work related ones like hitting sales goals every month. Once we hold ourselves accountable for reaching targets, we may be inadvertently narrowing our vision, keeping our eye on the target and nothing else. What I mean is, with our focus so much on a set target, we may not be living the reality of the present moment, we may be losing sight of what’s important now and the potential opportunities that crop up around us naturally. In a static environment, this may not be a problem, but when things are constantly changing all around us, “target mentality” can be a risky one.

To add some context to this fluff, let me illustrate the power of no targets in a real-life working environment. STAT Search Analytics is a burgeoning SAAS startup based in Vancouver, B.C. Since 2011, we’ve grown at an incredible rate year over year and don’t show any signs of slowing down.

Like any SAAS organization, STAT is made up of various departments or teams. I am part of the Client Success team, and our job is to manage the entire client base. When we think about metrics at a high level, the client success team reports on the following:

  • Churn rates: the loss in recurring revenue in a given period.
  • Expansion rates: the growth in revenue in a given period.
  • Renewal rates: the percentage of client accounts that renew their contract

Perhaps a little unconventional for this type of department, we do not hold ourselves to constrained targets based on the above metrics. Instead, we have a clear intention…

To provide unconditional support and service to all of our clients & our team mates.

Every day when we approach our work, the above intent is at the forefront of our minds. We live that reality and positive results naturally follow. The proof is in the pudding:

  • Negative Churn: Negative churn is the promised land for any SAAS product. And We’ve been fortunate to achieve negative churn rates year after year. This means that if we were to stop selling new business, the organization would continue to grow as the growth from existing revenue outpaces the contraction from lost revenue. Here’s a good case study from New Relic on negative churn.
  • Reputation: We’ve managed to establish a renowned reputation for providing best in class support and service to our client base. We have a mix of technically savvy individuals and strategically minded folks, which gives us a well-rounded balance on the team. It is our values around communication, however, that make the difference. We will always make a conscious effort to be empathetic, friendly and humble when engaging with our clients and with members of the team. The value of this has a ripple effect on the brand as a whole, from feel-good vibes and loyal clients to a conveyor belt of new business referrals.
  • Team Morale: I believe the absence of targets and a clear intention has an immense effect on the morale of the team. The team has the ability to live in the present and focus on what is important now because their minds are freed from the pressure and anxiety around hitting predetermined targets. Every team member embodies the group’s intention in areas that interest them and as a result are more engaged in their work. Our team members are encouraged to grow and thrive, doing work that they love. Because of this, we have retained a strong and cohesive client success team since 2013 with zero turnovers.

How do we measure success?

This is a fair question to ask and a challenge that is often raised with ‘targetless’ strategies. If there is no finish line, no end goal, no winner, how are we supposed to know if we’ve been successful? how are we supposed to hold ourselves accountable for our work?

If we think about the team’s intention as a process orientated goal or strategy, it speaks to something that can be lived and measured daily. Everyone on the team can check-in with themselves and their teammates at any moment, to see how we are living the intention. It’s something we can measure ourselves against all the time rather than irregular KPI centric goals.

In summary, do targets really matter?

I suppose that is a subjective question, it depends.

It depends on the type of work, it depends on the type of team, it depends on the type of individuals

I’m sure there are a lot of people, teams, and organizations that swear by targets and can tell success stories. I’m not writing off the target based approach, I’m simply sharing the approach that has worked for us. Looking back now, we can summarize this approach in three steps. I think a good place to start is to:

  1. Figure out how you define success as a team. What is the best course of direct actions will help your team affect the company’s bottom line in a positive way?
  2. Come up with your intention, refining your team’s goals into a key phrase.
  3. Build that intention into the team culture and interpret all actions through its lens.

An interesting deeper investigation would be to analyze how a target-based team and an intention-based team behave in the long run. How do these two approaches affect team behaviors, dynamics, and emotional well-being? Would either approach render different results in the long run? For this startup, it’s brought us a happy team and success.

References

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