A Tool to Help You Reach Your Goals in Four Steps

This article was published in Harvard Business Review, a credible and valuable source in the field of business.

Author: Heidi Grant

Creating goals that you will actually accomplish isn’t just a matter of defining what needs doing—you also have to spell out the specifics of getting it done. Research shows that you can significantly improve your odds by using what motivational scientists call “if-then planning” to express your intentions. We’re neurologically wired to make if-then connections, so they’re powerful triggers for action.

This tool will help you take advantage of how the brain works. To begin, break down your goals into concrete subgoals and detailed actions for reaching them.

Let’s use a hypothetical example to see how this works.

Step 1: Establish your goal.

• Goal: Improve team communication.

Step 2: Break down your goal into concrete subgoals.

• Subgoal 1: Identify where communication is failing.

• Subgoal 2: Create new opportunities for communication between managers and direct reports.

• Subgoal 3: Reduce information overload among staff members.

Step 3: Identify detailed actions—and the who, when, and where—for achieving each subgoal.

• Action on subgoal 1: Gather feedback on problem areas from employees.

• Who-when-where for subgoal 1: Director of HR, at the beginning of the month, email.

• Action on subgoal 2: Generate quick weekly status report.

• Who-when-where for subgoal 2: All employees, every Friday, to be submitted via email by noon.

• Action on subgoal 3: Prohibit knee-jerk forwarding of emails.

• Who-when-where for subgoal 3: All employees, whenever emails are forwarded

Step 4: Create if-then plans that trigger actions. Structure your plans as if-then statements (“If x, then y”) using your actions and who, when, wheres from step 3.

• If-then plan for subgoal 1: If it’s the first of the month, then I (the director of HR) will send out forms via email soliciting suggestions for how to improve communication.

• If-then plan for subgoal 2: If it’s Friday morning, then I (all employees) will create a summary of progress on current projects and send it (via email) to my supervisor by noon.

• If-then plan for subgoal 3: When I (all employees) forward any email, I will include a brief note at the top explaining what it is and why I’m sharing it.

Defining your goal is important. But when you pair that with if-then planning to decide exactly when, where, and how you’ll accomplish your goal, you’ll pinpoint conditions for success, increase your sense of responsibility, and help close the troublesome gap between knowing and doing.

Heidi Grant, PhD, is Senior Scientist at the Neuroleader-ship Institute and associate director for the Motivation Science Center at Columbia University. She is the author of the best-selling Nine Things Successful People Do Differently (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012). Her latest book is No One Understands You and What to Do About It (Harvard Business Review Press, 2015), which has been featured in national and international media. Follow her on Twitter: @heidigrantphd.