'Tis the season... for big audacious goals!

This time of year, many of us make promises to ourselves for personal improvement in the form of a New Year's resolution. Often these promises are inspiring in the mind, but by the second or third week of January have bogged down in execution. How can we make and maintain progress on these lofty aspirations? In a word — incrementally. We'll get there by taking one step at a time.

Before taking that first step

Using the desired personal improvement as a focal point, start by imagining a path leading towards the improvement. Now place your current aspirational goal, your "resolution", as a milestone along the path. Define what achieving the milestone would look like. How would you know that you had successfully arrived there? What measures — quantitative or qualitative — might be useful in making that determination?

Next, decide one simple actionable step

While it might be tempting, leaping to the milestone in one single bound is likely impractical or even impossible, and failed attempts, while appearing heroic, actually sap momentum and break morale. Instead of one giant leap, decide on one action that if successfully done moves you incrementally towards the milestone.

For example, let's say your resolution is to show up on time to meetings, events, appointments and so forth. Rather than set a standard that you will never be late to anything from this point forward — an unrealistic expectation — start small. Pick a specific near term event and commit to being on time for this event. Pick something that you believe you can do. By defining a specific actionable step — being on time for this event — with a due date and clear "yes, I did this" or "no, I did not" criteria, you have established your first step.

Now do it!

If you succeed — "Yes, I did it!" — pick another near term event and do it again. Repeat until showing up on time becomes a habit. If you fail — "No, I did not" — don't despair. Reflect on why it didn't happen. What got in the way? Consider what you might have done differently that would have led to success.

Do it again!

Either way, success or fail, pick another near term event and repeat. These small incremental steps are concrete steps towards your aspirational goal. Each step also creates an opportunity for learning about how to make progress and an opportunity to evaluate the validity of your milestone in achieving your desired improvement. Feel free to make adjustments on goals, milestones and steps based on what you learn!

Making progress incrementally can help you keep that New Year’s resolution you just made (and it might also apply to that epic story your team is trying to implement).

Identifying and clarifying your team’s next incremental step is one of the ongoing activities in agile chartering. If you’re interested in learning how we can help you boost your team’s chartering practice, please contact us.