Forget the Output and Focus on the Outcome Instead!

And let teams find their own way to success

Recently, I’m on a mission. It is consuming almost all of my attention and time. I want to help my organization to focus on outcomes instead of output. To move away from “we need to build these features” to “we wish to make this impact.” It may seem obvious to only do things that add value, that make an impact. But my company certainly isn’t the only one that primarily examines the output.

Almost all of the initiatives in our company start with a clear purpose. There’s always a reason to invest money, time and work. The purpose of a project, a change process, or a new product is mostly communicated to those who actually carry it out, but not always.

But these people that do the work are almost never asked to ensure they achieve the desired outcomes. Instead, they are being requested to create output based plans and execute them accordingly. If the planned output is being delivered, the work was a success. Regardless of whether the desired outcome was actually achieved.

People are being rewarded for delivering the expected output. People that are good at creating and executing plans are being promoted. With that, the organization is fully focused on output. From top to bottom. And the thing is, you can’t focus on a specific part of the organisation. The entire organisation needs to put outcome front, left and centre.