Goal Setting Step 1: Crystallization

GoalTrak™ Knowledge Base

KB 011

Category: Help Title: Crystallization Summary: The chapter in "Make It Happen!" that discusses the first step in creating a goal: Crystallization
Product: GoalTrak™ EV, GoalTrak™ CV, GoalTrak™ PV	Version: All

Description:

GoalTrak EV - Crystallization

The first step in this Technology is to crystallize your thoughts. Allow yourself uninterrupted time for this Step. This requires you, the goal setter, to project your thoughts into the future, creating a picture of what you want in as much detail as possible. The challenge is to "put your brains on paper". Review your Mission, Vision, Dream List and Focus worksheets you have just finished, and the list of Key Result Areas in the Key Result Area field on the Main Create a Goal form. Pick the Key Result Area you want to start with and then select one of your most important, can't live without, "I won't survive without", potential goals.

In the area designated Crystallization, enter all your thoughts relative to quality, quantity, people, places, dollars, activities, events, dates, times, and all other elements of the goal you are trying to achieve. Include all of your senses to stimulate your thoughts. This is a free wheeling exercise. Don't judge whether or not each idea is appropriate, just capture what you are thinking. There will be time later to evaluate the appropriateness of any given phrase, word, or paragraph.

Include the "what" you want to happen, "how" you might want this goal to happen and "how much" of the goal you want. The answers to these questions help you develop the parameters, or boundaries, of the goal. All clearly written goals have boundaries to indicate where they begin and end.

Clear parameters will help reduce conflicts and unnecessary overlaps of goal directed activity. Several of our business clients have experienced mild shock when they put their management team through this process and found huge areas of overlap resulting in departmental bickering and increased costs. Other individuals discovered gaping holes where tasks that were supposed to happen didn't because they thought someone else was taking care of it (we KNOW that has never happened to you)!

Quantity of information is important in this effort. You will draw from this reservoir throughout the rest of the process. Write everything down!

Using the purchase of a new house as an example, crystallizing your thinking would include, geographic location, the kind of neighborhood, acreage, tract housing, single family, town home, number bedrooms, baths, ranch style, two story, Victorian, colonial, modern, exterior finish, price range, down payment, mortgage balance, monthly payments, real estate taxes, schools, resale value, pre-owned, new construction, when do you want to move in, and myriad other factors. To say "I want a new house" just won't do it.

Many people find Crystallizing their thinking, i.e., future projection, picturing the result, establishing parameters, the most difficult part of the goal setting process. We are not taught to think this way. We are more comfortable with short-term, vague and hazy mental images of the future. It takes extra energy and effort to be specific and concrete. It doesn't take a genius. It takes practice. The more you crystallize your thinking and write down your goals the easier it becomes to do so. That doesn't mean that achieving your goals will be easier. What it does mean is that you will become proficient in clarifying what you want to have happen. This clarity will help you communicate more effectively with others and make better decisions. Since improved communication and decision-making are often at the top of people's wish list, that should be benefit enough to master the Technology of Goal Setting.

NOTE: If you have a long term (3-5 year) Vision for your business, and have formulated supporting strategies to realize that Vision, then this process will be driven by those two documents. It begins the creation of operational goals that can be executed on by your people. The result will be a system of overall organizational goals covering 12 to 18 months, and impacting some or all of eight Key Result Areas of your organization.

If you have a Mission Statement, refer to it when you write your goals. The goals you set should meet the requirements of your Mission.

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Links to the chapters for each of the nine steps are listed in Related Topics below.

Related Topics:

Author: Richard Lewine

Published: January 15, 2006

Revised:

  Quantum Voyage
  2571 Whiteway Court
  Aurora, IL 60504

  Phone: 630-236-5332 Steve
  Phone: 215-997-5954 Rich