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Celebrating 70%

On Wednesday night, I suffered Arsenal against Man City at the Etihad with my 15-year-old son (who is, for some reason or another, a dyed in the wool arsenal fan) sat beside me on the couch.

We didn't manage all of it.

Part of the way into the second half, we went for a dog walk instead.

It's hard to convince people who are massively emotionally attached to stretch goals that 70% is an extraordinary achievement, but when you work in an organisation like ours where all our hopes and dreams are pinned on the OKR framework and our strategic plan for the next three years, we divide our goals into commitment goals and stretch goals.

Commitment goals are 'must make 100%'. That's easy things to think about.

You can see in your own practice or your work where it's essential that you do everything, and that will make things successful, but stretch goals are different.

Stretch goals are out of reach. They're almost unattainable; that's why they stretch you.

At the start of the season for Arsenal to win the league; that was a stretch goal, and then (as we all know, it's the hope that kills us) they got tantalizingly close.

And so, they'll have to settle for second place in the premier league with absolutely no competition for that slot and a guaranteed place in the Champions League after not being in that for the longest time.

They should be celebrating this weekend, absolutely delighted with where they've got to, but like I say, it's the hope that kills you.

There is a problem here, though, mistaking stretch for commitment.

I suspect nobody at Arsenal said it was a requirement to win the league this year and so dust yourself down and move along. If you get to near 70% of your stretch goals, you are a winner (stretching for the top means that if you don't make it, you finish second from the top, which is always better than a race to the bottom). 

By Colin Campbell on 28/04/2023, 18:00