essay on organization goals

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Organizational Goals Concept

Introduction

Organizational goals are implemented to assist organizations in realizing its objectives. The organizations goals are organized into three distinct groups that is corporate, departmental and individuals. However, whatever the groupings, the eventual basis for setting organization goals is to assist in providing the right direction for an organization towards fulfilling its objectives. Organizations goals vary. Hence, can either last temporarily or trail for a longer term. Whatever the reasons, they all aim at; improving quality, reducing risks and in building strong relations in the organization besides strengthening customer satisfaction.

This essay is organized into two parts. Part one discusses the characteristics of setting successful goals. The second part explores organizations goals in close reference to Barclays Bank, UK.

Characteristics of well-written goals

setting organizations goal is not a simple task. This is because organizations might not understand clearly what they should cover or can accommodate additional goals with the purpose of casing all the bases. Moreover, goals can breed in an organization because of new ones being created, whereas keeping the old ones. Thus, successful goal setting demands stability to the number and category of goals; several goals are paralyzing and few are perplexing. Gerloff (1985) explains that an organization needs to have clear guidelines that augment its performance to achieve optimum productivity. Davis reinforces Gerloff sentiment by agreeing that good organizations goals should entails characteristics such as; they should specific, measurable or quantifiable and time- bound stipulated (1996).

Specificity

Goals have to be in tandem with the organization strategic and corporate needs. This ensures intertwining within departments and harmonization of individual goals to achieve preferred results. Similarly, specificity of goals ensures that every employee in their respective departments work together to meet targets as outlined by an organization, irrespective of whether they are temporal or long-term based. Gerloff notes the specificity of goals helps in aligning individual goals, and the strategies and goals of the entire organization (1985). This serves to provide legitimacy, motivate employees and provide a favorable public opinion about the organization. In organizations, these intents describe the precise steps to undertake to achieve its purpose. These often agree with contextual goals for all the different operating organs of the larger organization.

Time- Bound

Successful goals should include starting, ending and stable points. A goal encompassing these features commits an organization towards succeeding them. Similarly, commitment to active deadlines allows an organization to tailor their efforts towards accomplishing the goal before the stated deadline. Goals that are designed without definite time- frame or schedules for accomplishment, risks being surpassed by a crisis that might habitually rise in an organization.

Measurability or Quantifiable

Goals should have an objective of authentication to find out if the organization strategy has to be achieved. Similarly, measuring of goals ensures correct judgment is achieved by assessing the progress. Measuring goal progress should be quantitative hence; this ensures results are marked, and corrections actions taken when a need arises.

Organizational Goals

Organizations overview and goals.

Barclays is one of the leading global banking institutions. It is involved in financial services such as; credit cards, retail banking, wealth management, corporate and investment banking among other financial services (Varley, 2011). It has an extensive presence in Asia, Africa, America and Europe. With more than 300 years’ experience in banking, Barclay’s expertise covers 50 nations with more than 145,000 employees (Varley, 2011). Besides, Barclays lends, protects invests and moves money for customers internationally. Barclays has a series of goals, which includes; Comparative total shareholder return, benefit and risk management and costs cuts.

Attaining the Goals

Relative total shareholder return.

The critical role of Barclays is to achieve maximum quartile shareholder profit or return (TSR) ultimately in contrast to their competitors in the financial division. TSR means, the amount of the share price progression and dividends (Varley, 2011). To gain this, Barclays reviews its competitors strategy annually, for example, in 2001), Barclays reviewed Citi group, AMRO and the Royal Bank of Scotland (Varley, 2011).

Dividends and Risks Management

The Barclays bank aims at preserving a progressive dividend strategy, with a fitting degree of dividend cover. To achieve this goal, Barclays has devised strategies for; controlling risks, managing the business carefully, preserving reliable resource value and overseeing efficient use of investments (Varley, 2011).

Effective goal setting for any given organizations boosts its business strategy and performance. Familiar with characteristics of goals such as specificity, time-bound and measurability, goes further in helping an organization achieve its temporal and long-term goals. However, this needs commitment, organization support and involvement of key stakeholders such as the customers.

Barclays, being a comprehensive financial service provider has tailored its goals towards meeting its organization’s needs. Hence, its goals such as; relative total shareholder profit or returns, dividends and risks management has embraced the ethics encompassed in goal settings. These goals have enabled the bank to measure the strength and weaknesses of its competitors and devise strategies of success. Consequently, dividend and risk management has enabled the bank to plan for risk reduction strategies, which has provided short and long-term benefits for the organization.

Reference List

Davis, J. (1996) Managing and Achieving Organizational Goals . Chicago, American Management Association.

Gerloff, J. (1985). Organizational Theory and Design: A strategic approach for management. Michigan, University of Michigan.

Varley, J. (2011). Barclays Financial Performance, Group Finance Director . Web.

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Organization and Structure

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There is no single organizational pattern that works well for all writing across all disciplines; rather, organization depends on what you’re writing, who you’re writing it for, and where your writing will be read. In order to communicate your ideas, you’ll need to use a logical and consistent organizational structure in all of your writing. We can think about organization at the global level (your entire paper or project) as well as at the local level (a chapter, section, or paragraph). For an American academic situation, this means that at all times, the goal of revising for organization and structure is to consciously design your writing projects to make them easy for readers to understand. In this context, you as the writer are always responsible for the reader's ability to understand your work; in other words, American academic writing is writer-responsible. A good goal is to make your writing accessible and comprehensible to someone who just reads sections of your writing rather than the entire piece. This handout provides strategies for revising your writing to help meet this goal.

Note that this resource focuses on writing for an American academic setting, specifically for graduate students. American academic writing is of course not the only standard for academic writing, and researchers around the globe will have different expectations for organization and structure. The OWL has some more resources about writing for American and international audiences here .

Whole-Essay Structure

While organization varies across and within disciplines, usually based on the genre, publication venue, and other rhetorical considerations of the writing, a great deal of academic writing can be described by the acronym IMRAD (or IMRaD): Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. This structure is common across most of the sciences and is often used in the humanities for empirical research. This structure doesn't serve every purpose (for instance, it may be difficult to follow IMRAD in a proposal for a future study or in more exploratory writing in the humanities), and it is often tweaked or changed to fit a particular situation. Still, its wide use as a base for a great deal of scholarly writing makes it worthwhile to break down here.

• Introduction : What is the purpose of the study? What were the research questions? What necessary background information should the reader understand to help contextualize the study? (Some disciplines include their literature review section as part of the introduction; some give the literature review its own heading on the same level as the other sections, i.e., ILMRAD.) Some writers use the CARS model to help craft their introductions more effectively.
• Methods: What methods did the researchers use? How was the study conducted? If the study included participants, who were they, and how were they selected?
• Results : This section lists the data. What did the researchers find as a result of their experiments (or, if the research is not experimental, what did the researchers learn from the study)? How were the research questions answered?
• Discussion : This section places the data within the larger conversation of the field. What might the results mean? Do these results agree or disagree with other literature cited? What should researchers do in the future?

Depending on your discipline, this may be exactly the structure you should use in your writing; or, it may be a base that you can see under the surface of published pieces in your field, which then diverge from the IMRAD structure to meet the expectations of other scholars in the field. However, you should always check to see what's expected of you in a given situation; this might mean talking to the professor for your class, looking at a journal's submission guidelines, reading your field's style manual, examining published examples, or asking a trusted mentor. Every field is a little different.

Outlining & Reverse Outlining

One of the most effective ways to get your ideas organized is to write an outline. A traditional outline comes as the pre-writing or drafting stage of the writing process. As you make your outline, think about all of the concepts, topics, and ideas you will need to include in order to accomplish your goal for the piece of writing. This may also include important citations and key terms. Write down each of these, and then consider what information readers will need to know in order for each point to make sense. Try to arrange your ideas in a way that logically progresses, building from one key idea or point to the next.

Questions for Writing Outlines

• What are the main points I am trying to make in this piece of writing?
• What background information will my readers need to understand each point? What will novice readers vs. experienced readers need to know?
• In what order do I want to present my ideas? Most important to least important, or least important to most important? Chronologically? Most complex to least complex? According to categories? Another order?

Reverse outlining comes at the drafting or revision stage of the writing process. After you have a complete draft of your project (or a section of your project), work alone or with a partner to read your project with the goal of understanding the main points you have made and the relationship of these points to one another. The OWL has another resource about reverse outlining here.

Questions for Writing Reverse Outlines

• What topics are covered in this piece of writing?
• In what order are the ideas presented? Is this order logical for both novice and experienced readers?
• Is adequate background information provided for each point, making it easy to understand how one idea leads to the next?
• What other points might the author include to further develop the writing project?

Organizing at the sentence and paragraph level

Signposting.

Signposting is the practice of using language specifically designed to help orient readers of your text. We call it signposting because this practice is like leaving road signs for a driver — it tells your reader where to go and what to expect up ahead. Signposting includes the use of transitional words and phrasing, and they may be explicit or more subtle. For example, an explicit signpost might say:

This section will cover Topic A­­ and Topic B­­­­­.

A more subtle signpost might look like this:

It's important to consider the impact of Topic A­­ and Topic B­­­­­.

The style of signpost you use will depend on the genre of your paper, the discipline in which you are writing, and your or your readers’ personal preferences. Regardless of the style of signpost you select, it’s important to include signposts regularly. They occur most frequently at the beginnings and endings of sections of your paper. It is often helpful to include signposts at mid-points in your project in order to remind readers of where you are in your argument.

Questions for Identifying and Evaluating Signposts

• How and where does the author include a phrase, sentence, or short group of sentences that explains the purpose and contents of the paper?
• How does each section of the paper provide a brief summary of what was covered earlier in the paper?
• How does each section of the paper explain what will be covered in that section?
• How does the author use transitional words and phrases to guide readers through ideas (e.g. however, in addition, similarly, nevertheless, another, while, because, first, second, next, then etc.)?

WORKS CONSULTED

Clark, I. (2006). Writing the successful thesis and dissertation: Entering the conversation . Prentice Hall Press.

Davis, M., Davis, K. J., & Dunagan, M. (2012). Scientific papers and presentations . Academic press.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

9.3 Organizing Your Writing

Learning objectives.

• Understand how and why organizational techniques help writers and readers stay focused.
• Assess how and when to use chronological order to organize an essay.
• Recognize how and when to use order of importance to organize an essay.
• Determine how and when to use spatial order to organize an essay.

The method of organization you choose for your essay is just as important as its content. Without a clear organizational pattern, your reader could become confused and lose interest. The way you structure your essay helps your readers draw connections between the body and the thesis, and the structure also keeps you focused as you plan and write the essay. Choosing your organizational pattern before you outline ensures that each body paragraph works to support and develop your thesis.

This section covers three ways to organize body paragraphs:

• Chronological order
• Order of importance
• Spatial order

When you begin to draft your essay, your ideas may seem to flow from your mind in a seemingly random manner. Your readers, who bring to the table different backgrounds, viewpoints, and ideas, need you to clearly organize these ideas in order to help process and accept them.

A solid organizational pattern gives your ideas a path that you can follow as you develop your draft. Knowing how you will organize your paragraphs allows you to better express and analyze your thoughts. Planning the structure of your essay before you choose supporting evidence helps you conduct more effective and targeted research.

Chronological Order

In Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” , you learned that chronological arrangement has the following purposes:

• To explain the history of an event or a topic
• To tell a story or relate an experience
• To explain how to do or to make something
• To explain the steps in a process

Chronological order is mostly used in expository writing , which is a form of writing that narrates, describes, informs, or explains a process. When using chronological order, arrange the events in the order that they actually happened, or will happen if you are giving instructions. This method requires you to use words such as first , second , then , after that , later , and finally . These transition words guide you and your reader through the paper as you expand your thesis.

For example, if you are writing an essay about the history of the airline industry, you would begin with its conception and detail the essential timeline events up until present day. You would follow the chain of events using words such as first , then , next , and so on.

Writing at Work

At some point in your career you may have to file a complaint with your human resources department. Using chronological order is a useful tool in describing the events that led up to your filing the grievance. You would logically lay out the events in the order that they occurred using the key transition words. The more logical your complaint, the more likely you will be well received and helped.

Choose an accomplishment you have achieved in your life. The important moment could be in sports, schooling, or extracurricular activities. On your own sheet of paper, list the steps you took to reach your goal. Try to be as specific as possible with the steps you took. Pay attention to using transition words to focus your writing.

Keep in mind that chronological order is most appropriate for the following purposes:

• Writing essays containing heavy research
• Writing essays with the aim of listing, explaining, or narrating
• Writing essays that analyze literary works such as poems, plays, or books

When using chronological order, your introduction should indicate the information you will cover and in what order, and the introduction should also establish the relevance of the information. Your body paragraphs should then provide clear divisions or steps in chronology. You can divide your paragraphs by time (such as decades, wars, or other historical events) or by the same structure of the work you are examining (such as a line-by-line explication of a poem).

On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph that describes a process you are familiar with and can do well. Assume that your reader is unfamiliar with the procedure. Remember to use the chronological key words, such as first , second , then , and finally .

Order of Importance

Recall from Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” that order of importance is best used for the following purposes:

• Persuading and convincing
• Ranking items by their importance, benefit, or significance
• Illustrating a situation, problem, or solution

Most essays move from the least to the most important point, and the paragraphs are arranged in an effort to build the essay’s strength. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to begin with your most important supporting point, such as in an essay that contains a thesis that is highly debatable. When writing a persuasive essay, it is best to begin with the most important point because it immediately captivates your readers and compels them to continue reading.

For example, if you were supporting your thesis that homework is detrimental to the education of high school students, you would want to present your most convincing argument first, and then move on to the less important points for your case.

Some key transitional words you should use with this method of organization are most importantly , almost as importantly , just as importantly , and finally .

During your career, you may be required to work on a team that devises a strategy for a specific goal of your company, such as increasing profits. When planning your strategy you should organize your steps in order of importance. This demonstrates the ability to prioritize and plan. Using the order of importance technique also shows that you can create a resolution with logical steps for accomplishing a common goal.

On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph that discusses a passion of yours. Your passion could be music, a particular sport, filmmaking, and so on. Your paragraph should be built upon the reasons why you feel so strongly. Briefly discuss your reasons in the order of least to greatest importance.

Spatial Order

As stated in Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” , spatial order is best used for the following purposes:

• Helping readers visualize something as you want them to see it
• Evoking a scene using the senses (sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound)
• Writing a descriptive essay

Spatial order means that you explain or describe objects as they are arranged around you in your space, for example in a bedroom. As the writer, you create a picture for your reader, and their perspective is the viewpoint from which you describe what is around you.

The view must move in an orderly, logical progression, giving the reader clear directional signals to follow from place to place. The key to using this method is to choose a specific starting point and then guide the reader to follow your eye as it moves in an orderly trajectory from your starting point.

Pay attention to the following student’s description of her bedroom and how she guides the reader through the viewing process, foot by foot.

Attached to my bedroom wall is a small wooden rack dangling with red and turquoise necklaces that shimmer as you enter. Just to the right of the rack is my window, framed by billowy white curtains. The peace of such an image is a stark contrast to my desk, which sits to the right of the window, layered in textbooks, crumpled papers, coffee cups, and an overflowing ashtray. Turning my head to the right, I see a set of two bare windows that frame the trees outside the glass like a 3D painting. Below the windows is an oak chest from which blankets and scarves are protruding. Against the wall opposite the billowy curtains is an antique dresser, on top of which sits a jewelry box and a few picture frames. A tall mirror attached to the dresser takes up most of the wall, which is the color of lavender.

The paragraph incorporates two objectives you have learned in this chapter: using an implied topic sentence and applying spatial order. Often in a descriptive essay, the two work together.

The following are possible transition words to include when using spatial order:

• Just to the left or just to the right
• On the left or on the right
• Across from
• A little further down
• To the south, to the east, and so on
• A few yards away
• Turning left or turning right

On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph using spatial order that describes your commute to work, school, or another location you visit often.

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

Key Takeaways

• The way you organize your body paragraphs ensures you and your readers stay focused on and draw connections to, your thesis statement.
• A strong organizational pattern allows you to articulate, analyze, and clarify your thoughts.
• Planning the organizational structure for your essay before you begin to search for supporting evidence helps you conduct more effective and directed research.
• Chronological order is most commonly used in expository writing. It is useful for explaining the history of your subject, for telling a story, or for explaining a process.
• Order of importance is most appropriate in a persuasion paper as well as for essays in which you rank things, people, or events by their significance.
• Spatial order describes things as they are arranged in space and is best for helping readers visualize something as you want them to see it; it creates a dominant impression.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Organization’s Goals Essays

Alphabet’s integration and globalization and its impact on organization’s goals, popular essay topics.

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How To Write A Powerful Essay On Achieving Goals (+ Example)

Goal setting is a useful strategy to get the most out of life and set yourself up for success. However, there are many things to remember regarding proper goal setting and achievement. When writing a blm argumentative essay , it’s important to provide context on the history of the Black Lives Matter movement and the issues it seeks to address. This can help the reader understand the significance of the essay’s thesis and arguments. Let’s get to grips with the process of goal setting and come up with a powerful essay on achieving goals.

Structuring Your Essay on Achieving Goals:

How to write an introduction, how to write the main body of your essay.

There should be a minimum of three paragraphs in your essay. Each one is a ‘mini-essay with an introduction, body, and conclusion. Each should include:

How to Write a Conclusion

Example of an essay about achieving your goals.

So, let’s put all this information together and check an example essay on achieving goals: Effective Methods to Increase the Likelihood of Goal Achievement Achieving goals can be extremely rewarding and result in a more satisfying and successful life. Many people set goals yet cannot achieve them. However, there are ways to avoid or reduce the likelihood of missing the mark. By ensuring that goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), using visualization techniques, and rewarding goal attainment, the chances of success increase. First, ensure your goals are SMART. This means that goals should be specific and measurable in terms of outcomes, e.g., test scores . Goals should be achievable and realistic to the person’s capabilities and resources available. Also, a goal should apply to the person’s work, education, hobbies, or interests and include a deadline. If there is no specificity of outcome, there’s no real way to see how someone has improved—or how they might be falling short. And if goals are not SMART, they are more difficult to achieve. Second, by imagining and visualizing the feelings and outcomes of achievement of the goal , the likelihood of high achievement increases. The imagination can be a powerful tool. Imagining the feelings of accomplishment helps to increase self-efficacy and motivation. A Canadian study found that imagery skills moderate the effect of mental practice on self-efficacy. The effects of visualization techniques are valuable in goal achievement. Third, once the goal has been accomplished, a reward is required. Getting a reward for hard work will increasingly motivate an individual to set and achieve the next goal. The offer of a reward gives employees and students an extra boost of motivation. Rewards help the cycle of goal setting and goal achieving to continue. In summary, by ensuring the goals set are SMART, visualizing and rewarding success, goal achievement becomes more likely. Achieving goals is a cyclic process that’s possible to master if the right method is in place.

The Basics of Setting and Achieving Goals

Goals should be specific and free of generalizations, or they are unlikely to get done. Instead of stating that your goal is to improve your English skills, make it more specific by stating that your goal is to learn and use one new word every weekday to boost your English vocabulary.

A goal should be measurable because you need to keep your finger on the pulse and know where you’re at. For instance, a test or assessment score can provide evidence that you have reached your goal.

A goal needs to be possible to achieved. If it’s beyond your capabilities or requires resources you cannot access, then you will set yourself up for failure.

You must set a completion date for your goal. If you do not set a deadline, you may lack the motivation to reach it. Once you have your SMART goal, record it clearly on paper or a mobile device and then visualize the outcome of achieving that goal. Imagine how happy you will feel when you achieve it. This vivid mental imagery will provide you with the extra motivation to go for it. Finally, when you reach your goal, it’s time to celebrate! Reward yourself with a trip, an item you desire, relaxation time with friends, or whatever else that will make you feel happy.

Ready to write an essay about achieving goals?

Hopefully, the information in the article has given you the basics to help you write a powerful essay on achieving goals. I also hope that this article has helped you think about how you can work toward achieving your own goals. There are many great books about the science of goal achievement. I especially recommend ones written by Brian Tracy , as they have helped me a great deal in my pursuit of happiness . You can also create an engaging presentation about achieving goals and objectives using this  goal presentation template . Next up, you may want to explore an ultimate guide to writing expository essays .

Rafal Reyzer

Hey there, welcome to my blog! I'm a full-time entrepreneur building two companies, a digital marketer, and a content creator with 10+ years of experience. I started RafalReyzer.com to provide you with great tools and strategies you can use to become a proficient digital marketer and achieve freedom through online creativity. My site is a one-stop shop for digital marketers, and content enthusiasts who want to be independent, earn more money, and create beautiful things. Explore my journey here , and don't miss out on my AI Marketing Mastery online course.

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• How to write an expository essay

How to Write an Expository Essay | Structure, Tips & Examples

Published on July 14, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

“Expository” means “intended to explain or describe something.” An expository essay provides a clear, focused explanation of a particular topic, process, or set of ideas. It doesn’t set out to prove a point, just to give a balanced view of its subject matter.

Expository essays are usually short assignments intended to test your composition skills or your understanding of a subject. They tend to involve less research and original arguments than argumentative essays .

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Table of contents

When should you write an expository essay, how to approach an expository essay, introducing your essay, writing the body paragraphs, concluding your essay, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about expository essays.

In school and university, you might have to write expository essays as in-class exercises, exam questions, or coursework assignments.

Sometimes it won’t be directly stated that the assignment is an expository essay, but there are certain keywords that imply expository writing is required. Consider the prompts below.

The word “explain” here is the clue: An essay responding to this prompt should provide an explanation of this historical process—not necessarily an original argument about it.

Sometimes you’ll be asked to define a particular term or concept. This means more than just copying down the dictionary definition; you’ll be expected to explore different ideas surrounding the term, as this prompt emphasizes.

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An expository essay should take an objective approach: It isn’t about your personal opinions or experiences. Instead, your goal is to provide an informative and balanced explanation of your topic. Avoid using the first or second person (“I” or “you”).

The structure of your expository essay will vary according to the scope of your assignment and the demands of your topic. It’s worthwhile to plan out your structure before you start, using an essay outline .

A common structure for a short expository essay consists of five paragraphs: An introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Like all essays, an expository essay begins with an introduction . This serves to hook the reader’s interest, briefly introduce your topic, and provide a thesis statement summarizing what you’re going to say about it.

Hover over different parts of the example below to see how a typical introduction works.

In many ways, the invention of the printing press marked the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval period in Europe is often remembered as a time of intellectual and political stagnation. Prior to the Renaissance, the average person had very limited access to books and was unlikely to be literate. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed for much less restricted circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.

The body of your essay is where you cover your topic in depth. It often consists of three paragraphs, but may be more for a longer essay. This is where you present the details of the process, idea or topic you’re explaining.

It’s important to make sure each paragraph covers its own clearly defined topic, introduced with a topic sentence . Different topics (all related to the overall subject matter of the essay) should be presented in a logical order, with clear transitions between paragraphs.

Hover over different parts of the example paragraph below to see how a body paragraph is constructed.

The invention of the printing press in 1440 changed this situation dramatically. Johannes Gutenberg, who had worked as a goldsmith, used his knowledge of metals in the design of the press. He made his type from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, whose durability allowed for the reliable production of high-quality books. This new technology allowed texts to be reproduced and disseminated on a much larger scale than was previously possible. The Gutenberg Bible appeared in the 1450s, and a large number of printing presses sprang up across the continent in the following decades. Gutenberg’s invention rapidly transformed cultural production in Europe; among other things, it would lead to the Protestant Reformation.

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The conclusion of an expository essay serves to summarize the topic under discussion. It should not present any new information or evidence, but should instead focus on reinforcing the points made so far. Essentially, your conclusion is there to round off the essay in an engaging way.

Hover over different parts of the example below to see how a conclusion works.

The invention of the printing press was important not only in terms of its immediate cultural and economic effects, but also in terms of its major impact on politics and religion across Europe. In the century following the invention of the printing press, the relatively stationary intellectual atmosphere of the Middle Ages gave way to the social upheavals of the Reformation and the Renaissance. A single technological innovation had contributed to the total reshaping of the continent.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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An expository essay is a broad form that varies in length according to the scope of the assignment.

Expository essays are often assigned as a writing exercise or as part of an exam, in which case a five-paragraph essay of around 800 words may be appropriate.

You’ll usually be given guidelines regarding length; if you’re not sure, ask.

An expository essay is a common assignment in high-school and university composition classes. It might be assigned as coursework, in class, or as part of an exam.

Sometimes you might not be told explicitly to write an expository essay. Look out for prompts containing keywords like “explain” and “define.” An expository essay is usually the right response to these prompts.

An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

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The Importance, Benefits, and Value of Goal Setting

We all know that setting goals is important, but we often don’t realize how important they are as we continue to move through life.

Goal setting does not have to be boring. There are many benefits and advantages to having a set of goals to work towards.

Setting goals helps trigger new behaviors, helps guides your focus and helps you sustain that momentum in life.

Goals also help align your focus and promote a sense of self-mastery. In the end, you can’t manage what you don’t measure and you can’t improve upon something that you don’t properly manage. Setting goals can help you do all of that and more.

In this article, we will review the importance and value of goal setting as well as the many benefits.

We will also look at how goal setting can lead to greater success and performance. Setting goals not only motivates us, but can also improve our mental health and our level of personal and professional success.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients create actionable goals and master techniques to create lasting behavior change.

This Article Contains:

The importance and value of goal setting, why set goals in life, what are the benefits of goal setting, 5 proven ways goal setting is effective, how can goal setting improve performance, how goal setting motivates individuals, why is goal setting important for students, a look at the importance of goal setting in mental health, the importance of goal setting in business and organizations, 10 quotes on the value and importance of setting goals, a take-home message.

Up until 2001, goals were divided into three types or groups (Elliot & McGregor, 2001):

• Mastery goals
• Performance-approach goals
• Performance-avoidance goals

A mastery goal is a goal someone sets to accomplish or master something such as “ I will score higher in this event next time .”

A performance-approach goal is a goal where someone tries to do better than his or her peers. This type of goal could be a goal to look better by losing 5 pounds or getting a better performance review.

A performance-avoidance goal is a goal where someone tries to avoid doing worse than their peers such as a goal to avoid negative feedback.

Research done by Elliot and McGregor in 2001 changed these assumptions. Until this study was published, it was assumed that mastery goals were the best and performance-approach goals were at times good, and other times bad. Performance-avoidance goals were deemed the worst, and, in fact, bad.

The implied assumption, as a result of this, was that there were no bad mastery goals or mastery-avoidance goals.

Elliot and McGregor’s study challenged those assumptions by proving that master-avoidance goals do exist and proving that each type of goal can, in fact, be useful depending on the circumstances.

Elliot and McGregor’s research utilized a 2 x 2 achievement goal framework comprised of:

• Mastery-approach
• Mastery-avoidance
• Performance-approach
• Performance-avoidance

These variables were tested in 3 studies. In experiments one and two, explanatory factor analysis was used to break down 12 goal-setting questions into 4 factors, as seen in the diagram below.

Confirmatory factor analysis was used at a later date to show that mastery-avoidance and mastery-approach fit the data better than mastery alone.

The questions for these studies were created from a series of pilot studies and prior questionnaires. Once all of the questions were combined, a factor-analysis was utilized to confirm that each set of questions expressed different goal-setting components.

Results of these studies showed that those with a high motive to achieve were much more likely to use approach goals. Those with a high motive to avoid failure, on the other hand, were much more likely to use avoidance goals.

The third experiment examined the same four achievement goal variables and revealed that those more likely to use performance-approach goals were more likely to have higher exam scores, while those who used performance-avoidance goals were more likely to have lower exam scores.

According to the research, motivation in achievement settings is complex, and achievement goals are but one of several types of operative variables to be considered.

Achievement goal regulation, or the actual pursuit of the goal, implicates both the achievement goal itself as well as some other typically higher order factors such as motivationally relevant variables, according to the research done by Elliot and McGregor.

As we can clearly see, the research on goal setting is quite robust.

Mark Murphy the founder and CEO of LeadershipIQ.com and author of the book “ Hard Goals : The Secret to Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be ,” has gone through years of research in science and how the brain works and how we are wired as a human being as it pertains to goal setting.

Murphy’s book “ Hard Goals: The Secret to Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” combines the latest research in psychology and brain science on goal-setting as well as the law of attraction to help fine-tune the process.

A HARD goal is an achieved goal, according to Murphy (2010). Murphy tells us to put our present cost into the future and our future benefit into the present.

What this really means is don’t put off until tomorrow what you could do today. We tend to value things in the present moment much more than we value things in the future.

Setting goals is a process that changes over time. The goals you set in your twenties will most likely be very different from the goals you set in your forties.

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These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients create actionable goals and master techniques for lasting behavior change.

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Edward Locke and Gary Latham (1990) are leaders in goal-setting theory. According to their research, goals not only affect behavior as well as job performance, but they also help mobilize energy which leads to a higher effort overall. Higher effort leads to an increase in persistent effort.

Goals help motivate us to develop strategies that will enable us to perform at the required goal level.

Accomplishing the goal can either lead to satisfaction and further motivation or frustration and lower motivation if the goal is not accomplished.

Goal setting can be a very powerful technique, under the right conditions according to the research (Locke & Latham, 1991).

According to Lunenburg (2011), the motivational impact of goals may, in fact, be affected by moderators such as self-efficacy and ability as well.

In the 1968 article “ Toward a Theory of Task Motivation ” Locke showed us that clear goals and appropriate feedback served as a good motivator for employees (Locke, 1968).

Locke’s research also revealed that working toward a goal is a major source of motivation, which, in turn, improves performance.

Locke reviewed over a decade of research of laboratory and field studies on the effects of goal setting and performance. Locke found that over 90% of the time, goals that were specific and challenging, but not overly challenging, led to higher performance when compared to easy goals or goals that were too generic such as a goal to do your best.

Dr. Gary Latham also studied the effects of goal setting in the workplace. Latham’s results supported Locke’s findings and showed there is indeed a link that is inseparable between goal setting and workplace performance.

Locke and Latham published work together in 1990 with their work “ A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance ” stressing the importance of setting goals that were both specific and difficult.

Locke and Latham also stated that there are five goal-setting principles that can help improve your chances of success.

• Task Complexity

Clarity is important when it comes to goals. Setting goals that are clear and specific eliminate the confusion that occurs when a goal is set in a more generic manner.

Challenging goals stretch your mind and cause you to think bigger. This helps you accomplish more. Each success you achieve helps you build a winning mindset.

Commitment is also important. If you don’t commit to your goal with everything you have it is less likely you will achieve it.

Feedback helps you know what you are doing right and how you are doing. This allows you to adjust your expectations and your plan of action going forward.

Task Complexity is the final factor. It’s important to set goals that are aligned with the goal’s complexity.

Why the secret to success is setting the right goals – John Doerr

Goal setting and task performance were studied by Locke and Latham (1991). Goal setting theory is based upon the simplest of introspective observations, specifically, that conscious human behavior is purposeful.

This behavior is regulated by one’s goals. The directedness of those goals characterizes the actions of all living organisms including things like plants.

Goal-setting theory, according to the research, states that the simplest and most direct motivational explanation on why some people perform better than others is because they have different performance goals.

Two attributes have been studied in relation to performance:

In regard to content, the two aspects that have been focused on include specificity and difficulty. Goal content can range from vague to very specific as well as difficult or not as difficult.

Difficulty depends upon the relationship someone has to the task. The same task or goal can be easy for one person, and more challenging for the next, so it’s all relative.

On average though the higher the absolute level is of a goal, the more difficult it is to achieve. According to research, there have been more than 400 studies that have examined the relationship of goal attributes to task performance.

According to Locke and Latham (1991), it has been consistently found that performance is a linear function of a goal’s difficulty.

Given an adequate level of ability and commitment, the harder a goal, the higher the performance.

What the researchers discovered was that people normally adjust their level of effort to the difficulty of the goal. As a result, they try harder for difficult goals when compared to easier goals.

The principle of goal-directed action is not restricted to conscious action, according to the research.

Goal-directed action is defined by three attributes, according to Lock & Latham.

• Self-generation
• Value-significance
• Goal-causation

Self-generation refers to the source of energy integral to the organism. Value-significance refers to the idea that the actions not only make it possible but necessary to the organism’s survival. Goal-causation means the resulting action is caused by a goal.

While we can see that all living organisms experience some kind of goal-related action, humans are the only organisms that possess a higher form of consciousness, at least according to what we know at this point in time.

When humans take purposeful action, they set goals in order to achieve them.

Locke and Latham have also shown us that there is an important relationship between goals and performance.

Locke and Latham’s research supports the idea that the most effective performance seems to be the result of goals being both specific and challenging. When goals are used to evaluate performance and linked to feedback on results, they create a sense of commitment and acceptance.

The researchers also found that the motivational impact of goals may be affected by ability and self-efficacy, or one’s belief that they can achieve something.

It was also found that deadlines helped improve the effectiveness of a goal and a learning goal orientation leads to higher performance when compared to a performance goal orientation.

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Research done by Moeller, Theiler, and Wu (2012) examined the relationship between goal setting and student achievement at the classroom level.

This research examined a 5-year quasi-experimental study, which looked at goal setting and student achievement in the high school Spanish language classroom.

A tool known as LinguaFolio was used, and introduced into 23 high schools with a total of 1,273 students.

The study portfolio focused on student goal setting , self-assessment and a collection of evidence of language achievement.

Researchers used a hierarchical linear model, and then analyzed the relationship between goal setting and student achievement. This research was done at both the individual student and teacher levels.

A correlational analysis of the goal-setting process as well as language proficiency scores revealed a statistically significant relationship between the process of setting goals and language achievement (p < .01).

The research also looked at the importance of autonomy or one’s ability to take responsibility for their learning. Autonomy is a long-term aim of education, according to the study as well as a key factor in learning a language successfully.

There has been a paradigm shift in language education from teacher to student-centered learning, which makes the idea of autonomy even more important.

Goal setting in language learning is commonly regarded as one of the strategies that encourage a student’s sense of autonomy (Moeller, Theiler & Wu, 2012)

The results of the study revealed that there was a consistent increase over time in the main goal, plan of action and reflection scores of high school Spanish learners.

This trend held true for all levels except for the progression from third to fourth year Spanish for action plan writing and goal setting. The greatest improvement in goal setting occurred between the second and third levels of Spanish.

In one study , that looked at goal setting and wellbeing, people participated in three short one-hour sessions where they set goals.

The researchers compared those who set goals to a control group, that didn’t complete the goal-setting exercise . The results showed a causal relationship between goal setting and subjective wellbeing.

Weinberger, Mateo, and Sirey (2009) also looked at perceived barriers to mental health care and goal setting amongst depressed, community-dwelling older adults.

Forty-seven participants completed the study, which examined various barriers to mental health and goal setting. These barriers include:

• Psychological barriers such as social attitudes, beliefs about depression and stigmas.
• Logistical barriers such as transportation and availability of services.
• Illness-related barriers that are either modifiable or not such as depression severity, comorbid anxiety, cognitive status, etc.

For individuals who perceive a large number of barriers to be overcome, a mental health referral can seem burdensome as opposed to helpful.

Defining a personal goal for treatment may be something that is helpful and even something that can increase the relevance of seeking help and improving access to care according to the study.

Goal setting has been shown to help improve the outcome in treatment, amongst studies done in adults with depression. (Weinberger, Mateo, & Sirey, 2009)

The process of goal setting has even become a major focus in several of the current psychotherapies used to treat depression. Some of the therapies that have used goal setting include:

• Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)
• Cognitive and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CT, CBT)
• Problem-Solving Therapy (PST)

Participants who set goals, according to the study, were more likely to accept a mental health referral. Goal setting seems to be a necessary and good first step when it comes to helping a depressed older adult take control of their wellbeing.

Most of us have been taught from a young age that setting goals can help us accomplish more and get better organized.

Goals help motivate us and help us organize our thoughts. Throughout evolutionary psychology, however, a conscious activity like goal setting has often been downplayed.

Psychoanalysis put the focus on the unconscious part of the mind, while cognitive behaviorists argue that external factors are of greater importance.

In 1968, Edward A. Locke formally developed something he called goal-setting theory, as an alternative to all of this.

Goal-setting theory helps us understand that setting goals are a conscious process and a very effective and efficient means when it comes to increasing productivity and motivation, especially in the workplace.

According to Gary P. Latham, the former President of the Canadian Psychological Association, the underlying premise of goal-setting theory is that our conscious goals affect what we achieve. Our goals are the object or the aim of our action.

This viewpoint is not aligned with the traditional cognitive behaviorism, which looks at human behavior as something that is conducted by external stimuli.

This view tells us that just like a mechanic works on a car, other people often work on our brains, without us even realizing it, and this, in turn, determines how we behave.

Goal setting theory goes beyond this assumption, telling us that our internal cognitive functions are equally important, if not more, when determining our behavior.

In order for our conscious cognition to be effective, we must direct and orient our behavior toward the world. That is the real purpose of a goal.

According to Locke and Latham, there is an important relationship between goals and performance.

Research supports the prediction that the most effective performance often results when goals are both specific and challenging in nature.

A learning goal orientation often leads to higher performance when compared to a performance goal orientation, according to the research.

Deadlines also improve the effectiveness of a goal. Goals have a pervasive influence on both employee behaviors and performance in organizations and management practice according to Locke and Latham (2002).

According to the research, nearly every modern organization has some type of psychological goal setting program in its operation.

Programs like management by objectives, (MBO), high-performance work practices (HPWP) and management information systems (MIS) all use benchmarking to stretch targets and plan strategically, all of which involve goal setting to some extent.

Fred C. Lunenburg, a professor at Sam Houston State University, summarized these points in the International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration journal article “Goal-Setting Theory of Motivation” (Lunenburg, 2011).

Specific: Specificity tells us that in order for a goal to be successful, it must also be specific. Goals such as I will do better next time are much too vague and general to motivate us.

Something more specific would be to state: I will spend at least 2 hours a day this week in order to finish the report by the deadline . This goal motivates us into action and holds us accountable.

Difficult but still attainable : Goals must, of course, be attainable, but they shouldn’t be too easy. Goals that are too simple may even cause us to give up. Goals should be challenging enough to motivate us without causing us undue stress.

Process of Acceptance : If we are continually given goals by other people, and we don’t truly accept them, we will most likely continue to fail. Accepting a goal and owning a goal is the key to success.

One way to do this on an organizational level is to bring team members together to discuss and set goals.

Feedback and evaluation : When a goal is accomplished, it makes us feel good. It gives us a sense of satisfaction. If we don’t get any feedback, this sense of pleasure will quickly go away and the accomplishment may even be meaningless.

In the workplace, continuous feedback helps give us a sense that our work and contributions matter. This goes beyond measuring a single goal.

When goals are used for performance evaluation, they are often much more effective.

Learning beyond our performance : While goals can be used as a means by which to give us feedback and evaluate our performance, the real beauty of goal setting is the fact that it helps us learn something new.

When we learn something new, we develop new skills and this helps us move up in the workplace.

Learning-oriented goals can also be very helpful when it comes to helping us discover life-meaning which can help increase productivity.

Performance-oriented goals, on the other hand, force an employee to prove what he or she can or cannot do, which is often counterproductive.

These types of goals are also less likely to produce a sense of meaning and pleasure. If we lack that sense of satisfaction, when it comes to setting and achieving a goal, we are less likely to learn and grow and explore.

Group goals : Setting group goals is also vitally important for companies. Just as individuals have goals, so too must groups and teams, and even committees. Group goals help bring people together and allow them to develop and work on the same goals.

This helps create a sense of community, as well as a deeper sense of meaning, and a greater feeling of belonging and satisfaction.

17 Tools To Increase Motivation and Goal Achievement

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A goal properly set is halfway reached.

Everybody has their own Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

It’s better to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb than at the top of the one you don’t.

Stephen Kellogg

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.

Orison Swett Marden

The greater danger for most of us isn’t that our aim is too high and miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Michelangelo

Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I’ll give you a stock clerk.

J.C. Penney

Intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you.

Andy Andrews

This one step – choosing a goal and sticking to it – changes everything.

Setting goals can help us move forward in life. Goals give us a roadmap to follow. Goals are a great way to hold ourselves accountable, even if we fail. Setting goals and working to achieving them helps us define what we truly want in life.

Setting goals also helps us prioritize things. If we choose to simply wander through life, without a goal or a plan, that’s certainly our choice. However, setting goals can help us live the life we truly want to live.

Having said that, we don’t have to live every single moment of our lives planned out because we all need those days when we have nothing to accomplish.

However, those who have clearly defined goals might just enjoy their downtime even more than those who don’t set goals.

For more insightful reading, check out our selection of goal-setting books .

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free .

• Elliot, A. J., & McGregor, H. A. (2001). A 2 x 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80 (3), 501-519.
• Locke, E. A. (1968). Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives.  Organizational Behavior and Human Performance ,  3 (2), 157-189.
• Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (1991). A theory of goal setting & task performance. The Academy of Management Review, 16 (2), 212-247.
• Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation. American Psychologist, 57 (9), 705-717.
• Lunenburg, F. C. (2011). Goal-setting theory of motivation. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 15 (1), 1-6.
• Moeller, A. J., Theiler, J. M., & Wu, C. (2012). Goal setting and student achievement: A longitudinal study. The Modern Language Journal, 96 (2), 153-169.
• Murphy, M. (2010). HARD goals: The secret to getting from where you are to where you want to be. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
• Weinberger, M. I., Mateo, C., & Sirey, J. A. (2009). Perceived barriers to mental health care and goal setting among depressed, community-dwelling older adults. Patient Preference and Adherence, 3 , 145-149.

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Writing a Paper: Examples of Effective Writing Goals

Examples of effective writing goals.

Below are a few examples of less effective compared to more effective writing goals:

Ineffective Writing Goal: My writing goal is to get an A on my paper because I lost points for organization on my last assignment.

Although this goal has admirable intentions, it poses a series of potential obstacles. First, it is not focused on writing. The student has focused on a problem instead of concentrating on developing specific, achievable writing skills. There are also factors related to grading that are beyond the student’s control. For example, if the student has not written an academic, graduate level paper in several years, it would only be natural for the student to miss points related to organization and idea development. That is perfectly understandable. The important thing to remember is to focus on the needed skills as opposed to the problem at hand.

More Effective Writing Goal: I lost points on a recent assignment because of my paper’s organization. My writing goal is to apply the Writing Center’s MEAL plan to my next assignment and practice developing paragraphs with one, main idea.

In this revised writing goal, the student has identified not only a specific writing skill on which to focus but also a supporting resource—that is, the Writing Center’s MEAL plan —to achieve this goal. The student has also set a reasonable timeline for this goal by concentrating on the application of a single skill to a specific, upcoming assignment. Finally, the student has not placed undue pressure to achieve this goal after one project; instead, the student has smartly suggested that the goal is to practice effective paragraph structure.

Vague or Broad Writing Goal: I want to become a better writer.

Again, the student’s intentions here are genuinely positive. We, at the Writing Center, are always in favor of enhancing your writing skills no matter where you are in the writing process. However, in this case, the student has not narrowed their focus enough to identify what aspects of writing they hope to address. Without this concentration, it can be hard to know where to start. To this point, the student would likely benefit from establishing a step-by-step goals plan that works toward this larger objective of becoming a better writer.

More Effective Writing Goal: I want to focus on how to incorporate and cite evidence appropriately in order to become a more effective scholarly writer. I will achieve this goal by reviewing the Writing Center’s “Paraphrasing Source Material” webinar and then setting up a paper review appointment to check my revisions.

This revision is a clear step in the right direction. The student has now identified a specific set of skills on which to focus as well as established a reasonable plan for achieving this goal. Each step is within the student’s control and can be achieved in a timely manner. Most importantly, the student has not forgotten about the larger goal of becoming a better writer. The student simply has broken this process down into more manageable, step-by-step pieces. In fact, once this goal has been achieved, the student can set another smaller goal to continue their progress to becoming an effective scholarly writer. 

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Designing Great Team Goals: Benefits, Key Steps, and Examples

Performance Management

Aug 15, 2024

Shared goals unite people, turning them from a group of individuals into a strong and efficient team. So, building a strong team begins with setting great team goals. 

Every leader should guide their team in setting strong goals focused on clear outcomes. But why are team goals so crucial to motivation, productivity, and organizational success? Moreover, how do you establish the right ones? In this article, we’ll answer those questions and share some examples of great team goals. 

Benefits of Setting Team Goals 

As Peter Hawkins says in Leadership Team Coaching , team goals are more than the sum of group members’ individual goals—they can only be achieved by working collectively. Setting team goals expands what your team can accomplish together.

In fact, when top leaders support strong goal-setting, productivity rises by 57% , research has found. Mutual understanding of objectives fuels strong collaboration. Shared goals increase team cohesion, which in turn strengthens psychological safety among group members, explain Robert N. Lussier and Christopher F. Achua in Leadership: Theory, Application, and Skill Development . Trust and collaboration rise when people work toward shared goals, they write. People become more interdependent, turning to one another for support, information, and resources.

Great goals also enhance engagement in the workplace. People know exactly what they’re driving toward, increasing motivation. In contrast, without strong goals, team members will lack direction and miss opportunities to achieve positive change together.

As a result, goal-setting plays a big role in enhancing organizational success—especially when you synchronize goals at different levels. “When employee goals are aligned with organizational priorities and help employees meet changing needs, coordinate with peers and hold themselves accountable, employee performance increases by up to 22%,” Gartner has found .

Best Practices for Setting Team Goals

Follow these best practices to set excellent goals that your team can achieve. 

Set Cascading Goals

Align team goals with company objectives. All team goals should further the organization’s mission and vision. Start by reviewing the mission and vision. Then look at your company-level goals, as well as any department-level goals. Then, as a team, consider how you can best contribute to achieving them.

Decide on Goals Collectively

Brainstorming goals as a team will bring more innovative ideas than one person could generate alone. This also boosts group cohesion and morale, as Gerard Assey says in Goal Setting for Success . Plus, it increases investment in achieving the goals. Despite these benefits, just 15% of organizations involve teams in goal-setting, says Gartner. This represents a missed opportunity that you can use to enhance engagement, motivation, and performance. 

Provide Context and Direction

As the leader, provide direction to open the brainstorming session. Discuss business strategy and how it applies to your team’s work, as Gartner urges. Managers who effectively provide this context can increase the percentage of high performers by 26%, they found.

Create Short, Medium, and Long-Term Goals

Break goals into short-term, medium-term, and long-term priorities. Short-term goals are ones that you can accomplish in the quarter (or even within a month or two). They’re often the easiest to visualize, since they have very clear, actionable steps. Medium-term goals might be achieved within six months to a year. Long-term goals might be achieved over the course of a year, or even several years.

Create SMART Goals

Ensure goals are challenging yet attainable. All goals should be SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). This will ensure clear expectations and metrics for tracking outcomes. SMART goals use numbers to show the change you aim to make. They also specify a clear time frame in which you’ll achieve the goal.

Make sure your SMART goals are also stretch goals. They should expand your abilities as a team and individuals. If you’re not tackling new challenges that feel daunting at times, you need to set more challenging goals.

Design an Action Plan

Outline the steps to achieving each SMART goal, and the specific people involved. Consider delegating a different project leader for each goal, to build leadership skills among team members. Assign responsibilities to each person, along with a timeframe for completing each task. Define any necessary support for helping them carry out these steps, too. 

Mapping out the workflow in the form of a chart can clarify project stages. Also discuss key touchpoints for communicating about the project, like daily team check-ins. 

Establish Criteria for Success

Agree on standards for work quality as well. Draft criteria for success, specifying any improvements needed. Discuss potential barriers to achieving each goal and how to overcome them. By putting your minds together, you’ll come up with more creative solutions to challenges.

Adapt Goals as Needed

Regularly review and adjust goals as circumstances change. In today’s agile business world, goals need to be adaptable. If conditions shift, or you meet a current goal, you must be ready to dive in and set new ones.

How to Set Team Goals, Step by Step

  Image source Follow these steps to craft highly effective goals that motivate and inspire employees. Strive for several clear, actionable priorities that your team can zero in on. 

• Convene your team to generate ideas for goals. Schedule the meeting for a time when people tend to be energized.
• To begin, share any points of information that will aid in drafting relevant objectives. Reflect on the company’s mission, as well as your team mission, to kick off this meeting. If company leadership has adopted new overarching goals, share this information. Or, if you believe you need to adopt a different strategy to meet existing company goals, convey this to your team. 
• Organize your ideas in order of priority. Can some be combined? Should any be eliminated? Pick your top 3–5 ideas. 
• Refine the language, making sure each goal expresses exactly what you intend. Make the wording as clear and concise as possible to avoid ambiguity and confusion.
• Create KPIs for each goal. These indicators of success will help you determine when you’ve met a goal. For example, “Build a content calendar featuring two quality weekly posts” could support the goal of improving brand awareness among your target audience. Another way to look at it: Write actionable goals that specify exactly what you’re going to do.
• Establish cascading goals , which means calibrating goals at the organizational, team, and individual levels. After you’ve set team goals, individuals can set personal goals supporting them. Talk in group sessions as well as one-on-one about individual goals. This will boost motivation and accountability for personally contributing to team-level goals.

In addition to performance goals , consider personal development goals as a team. What skills does your team need to cultivate? Pinpoint any gaps that exist, or that may emerge as processes and technologies evolve. Then, decide on which individuals will pursue training in these areas.

Team Goal Examples

Here are a few examples of strong team goals, in different areas of focus. 

• Increase sales volume by 15% this quarter.
• Boost leads by 20% this quarter.
• Implement a mentorship program that ensures each employee has a mentor.
• Reduce production time for product X by 20%.
• Increase organic website traffic by 25%.
• Improve the conversion rate for leads to 60%.
• Boost customer loyalty by 35%.

When setting metrics, make sure they’re challenging but realistic. Remember that you can consider improving sales or processes quarter after quarter. So, start with a manageable improvement for the current quarter. 

How to Track, Monitor, and Support Progress 

Track team goals through performance management software . Make sure each person has access to this platform and understands how to use it. Good software can allow you to input cascading goals. This will illustrate the relationship between individual, team, and organizational goals in a quick-reference format.

Talk with each team member about progress toward personal goals during weekly one-on-ones. Also hold weekly team meetings where you check in about efforts toward team goals. During these team meetings, discuss hurdles, roadblocks, and milestones. Look at the percentage of each goal completed—seeing their progress can be extremely motivational! Then discuss what remains to be done. During performance reviews , refer back to goal achievement with the help of performance management solutions.

Through 360 reviews , you can also help team members set—and achieve—personal goals. Use these reviews to establish a baseline and track improvements.

By setting strong team goals, you’ll ramp up engagement and group morale. In turn, your team will achieve more ambitious results together, month after month. Share daily feedback on their progress to help them stay on track. As you achieve current goals, discuss how you can push yourselves even further!

Explore how performance management software can benefit your team— demo our product . 

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Module 6: The Writing Process

Essay organization, learning objectives.

• Examine the basic organization of traditional essays

What are some ways that you can organize your essays in college. One standard structure for expository essays is to offer the main idea or assertion early in the essay, and then offer categories of support.

One way to think about this standard structure is to compare it to a courtroom argument in a television drama. The lawyer asserts, “My client is not guilty.” Then the lawyer provides different reasons for lack of guilt: no physical evidence placing the client at the crime scene, client had no motive for the crime, and more.

In writing terms, the assertion is the  thesis sentence , and the different reasons are the  topic sentences . Consider this following example:

• Topic Sentence (reason) #1:  Workers need to learn how to deal with change.
• Topic Sentence (reason) #2:  Because of dealing with such a rapidly changing work environment, 21st-century workers need to learn how to learn.
• Topic Sentence (reason) #3:  Most of all, in order to negotiate rapid change and learning, workers in the 21st century need good communication skills.

As you can see, the supporting ideas in an essay develop out of the main assertion or argument in the thesis sentence.

The structural organization of an essay will vary, depending on the type of writing task you’ve been assigned, but they generally follow this basic structure: The thesis and the topic sentences are all concerned with workers and what they need for the workforce.

Introduction

The introduction provides the reader with context about your topic. You may be familiar with the cliché about how first impressions are important. This is true in writing as well, and you can think of your introduction as that first impression. The goal is to engage the readers, so they want to read on. Sometimes this involves giving an example, telling a story or narrative, asking a question, or building up the situation. The introduction should almost always include the thesis statement.

Body Paragraphs

The body of the essay is separated into paragraphs. Each paragraph usually covers a single claim or argues a single point, expanding on what was introduced in the thesis statement. For example, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, the two main causes of schizophrenia are genetic and environmental. Thus, if you were writing about the causes of schizophrenia, then you would have a body paragraph on genetic causes of schizophrenia and a body paragraph on the environmental causes.

A body paragraph usually includes the following:

• Topic sentence that identifies the topic for the paragraph
• Several sentences that describe and support the topic sentence

Figure 1 . College instructors require more than just “the end” at the close of a paper. Take the time to revisit your thesis statement, bringing all of your claims and evidences together in your conclusion.

• Remember that information from outside sources should be placed in the middle of the paragraph and not at the beginning or the end of the paragraph so that you have time to introduce and explain the outside content
• Quotation marks placed around any information taken verbatim (word for word) from the source
• Summary sentence(s) that draws conclusions from the evidence
• Transitions or bridge sentences between paragraphs.

If you began with a story, draw final conclusions from that story in your conclusion. If you began with a question, refer back to the question and be sure to provide the answer.

A concluding paragraph:

• summarizes final conclusions from the key points
• provides a brief comment on the evidence provided in the paper
• ties in the introduction
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• Writing an Essay. Provided by : QUT Cite Write. Located at : http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/write/essay.jsp . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Image of Choosing Paragraph Patterns. Authored by : GrinnPidgeon. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/a9oiLS . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Essay Structure. Authored by : Marianne Botos, Lynn McClelland, Stephanie Polliard, Pamela Osback . Located at : https://pvccenglish.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/eng-101-inside-pages-proof2-no-pro.pdf . Project : Horse of a Different Color: English Composition and Rhetoric . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Traditional Structure. Provided by : Excelsior OWL. Located at : https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/essay-writing/essay-writing-traditional-structure-activity/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Image of writing in the sand. Authored by : Michitogo. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/photos/the-end-sand-end-beach-text-1544913/ . License : Other . License Terms : https://pixabay.com/service/terms/#license

The Smart Goal-Setting Process: Motivation and Empowerment Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Smart objectives, smart career goals.

SMART goal-setting was first introduced by Dr. Edwin Locke in the 1960s (Griffin, 2017). According to Locke, setting goals that fit into the SMART criteria provided motivation and empowerment to people, which was crucial to ensure that the goals are achieved (Griffin, 2017). Today, SMART criteria are applied to the goal-setting process in many organizations, regardless of their size and area of business. The rules are universal and can also be applied to personal goals, which makes them an excellent tool for developing a career plan.

The first criterion emphasizes that goals need to be specific and relevant to the desired outcome (Joseph, 2017). Setting general goals may reduce motivation, as the path to achieving them becomes unclear (Joseph, 2017).

In order to achieve success in pursuing a goal, there has to be a way to measure success, which is why the second point of SMART goals theory is that the goals need to be measurable (Joseph, 2017). By measuring success, it is possible to monitor the progress towards the goal, which ultimately improves motivation.

The third criterion to be applied to goals is attainability. A goal that is impossible to achieve becomes a burden rather than an opportunity, as all the efforts put in by the person will not help him or her to attain the goal. If the goal is achievable, on the other hand, it is possible to devise a clear strategy to ensure that it is reached.

The next criterion emphasizes the need for the goal to be realistic, which means that a goal has to be set with consideration of the current circumstances. If the goal is set too high comparing to the current career level, reaching it will be hardly possible.

The final stage of goal-setting is ensuring that the goals are time-bound. Setting a definite time limit by which the goal has to be achieved creates a sense of urgency, which may become a substantial motivating factor.

My ultimate aim is to become a Registered Nurse. However, there are three main stages that have to be completed before I can reach the desired position.

Stage One: Graduate from Regis Health Care Administration

The first step in my career plan is to graduate from Regis College with a degree in Health Care Administration. In order to do that, I need to complete all of the program requirements and courses, which is a specific objective. The goal can be easily measured, and the result of completing the goal will be receiving a Diploma that marks the successful ending of the course. I believe that this aim is also attainable, as I am working towards completing the course and so far my grades have been acceptable. Completing this stage of the plan is realistic, as the goal is set based on my current level of education and abilities. Finally, the expected time of completion is Summer 2018, which makes the goal time-bound.

Stage Two: Enroll in an Accelerated Nursing Program

After I receive my certificate in Health Care Administration, I will need to enroll in a nursing program to continue my nursing education. I plan on applying for an accelerated nursing program at Regis, Metro, or Denver School, which is a specific objective. Acceptance into the program will be the ultimate measure of success, which means that the goal is measurable. It is also attainable and realistic, as it is the next step after I graduate from my HCA program; I am aware of the requirements of these schools and believe that I can attain the results needed for acceptance. Finally, the anticipated start of the program is in Fall 2018, which sets a specific time limit for the goal.

Stage Three: Work as an RN in Sandalwood Rehabilitation Center

The ultimate goal of my career plan is to achieve an RN position at Sandalwood Rehabilitation Center, where I currently work as a CNA. This aim is specific, as it mentions the position and place of work. The goal is also measurable, as I will know when I receive this position. The goal is attainable, as I have been successful in my work here so far and I believe that upon completion of the nursing course, I will be accepted to work as an RN. The aim is also realistic as I understand the requirements of the position and the path to achieving certification. Finally, the time limit of the goal will be estimated as soon as I complete the second stage of the plan, as it depends on the length of the nursing program that I will complete. As soon as I receive the certification, I believe it will take me up to six months to gain an RN position.

Overall, I believe that separating my career plan into three SMART goals is a useful practice to gain more understanding of how to achieve the ultimate career aim. SMART goal-setting ensures that the goals are not unrealistic, which provides more motivation to work towards the goals. I feel that my current abilities and the chosen path of development will help me to reach my final goal and to receive an RN position at Sandalwood Rehabilitation Center.

Griffin, D. (2017). The SMART goal-setting process . Web.

Joseph, C. (2017). Elements of S.M.A.R.T. goal setting . Web.

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IvyPanda. (2020, September 13). The Smart Goal-Setting Process: Motivation and Empowerment. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-goal-setting-process/

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IvyPanda . 2020. "The Smart Goal-Setting Process: Motivation and Empowerment." September 13, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-goal-setting-process/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Smart Goal-Setting Process: Motivation and Empowerment." September 13, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-goal-setting-process/.

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IvyPanda . "The Smart Goal-Setting Process: Motivation and Empowerment." September 13, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-goal-setting-process/.

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Earn an MS in Organizational Psychology at Azusa Pacific University

You’ll elevate your earning potential and distinguish yourself as a qualified and confident organizational psychologist in one of the fastest-growing occupations in America. You’ll expand your résumé through first-hand experience working with companies. We’ll help you build connections as you learn from faculty experienced in the field. In just a little over a year, you’ll graduate equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to help businesses and their employees flourish.

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Students are admitted to and can start the MS in Organizational Psychology program in any of the six sessions during the academic year. The application deadline is approximately three weeks before the start of any session.

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Program Details

The  Master of Science in Organizational Psychology  degree program prepares students to become effective organizational consultants (either internal or external to an organization). At the intersection of business and psychology, our blended learning experiences combine theoretical grounding and practical application. 

Browse the tabs below—if you have questions, visit the  Student Services Center  page, and we’ll make sure you get the info you need.

Admission Requirements—Domestic Applicants

The  university graduate  and program admission requirements below must be met before an application is considered complete.

Applicants must possess:

• A bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university is required.
• A minimum 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale. (Provisional admittance may be granted to individuals who do not meet this criteria if competency can be shown.)

Applicants must submit:

• Graduate application for admission
• $45 nonrefundable application fee
• Official transcripts from all institutions leading to and awarding the applicant’s bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution and all postbaccalaureate study An official transcript is one that Azusa Pacific University receives unopened in an envelope sealed by the former institution and that bears the official seal of the college or university. A cumulative minimum 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) grade-point average on the posted degree is required for regular admission status. Provisional admittance may be granted to individuals with a lower GPA if competency can be shown through multiple measures.
• Application essay of 1-2 pages describing educational and professional goals
• Résumé or statement of experience

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Once the application materials have been received, potential candidates may be invited for a personal interview with a member of the Department of Leadership and Organizational Psychology. This conversational meeting will allow us to further acknowledge your interests and goals in obtaining this degree.

What to Expect

After all admission materials have been received by the  Student Services Center , the faculty or department chair reviews the applicant’s file. The applicant is notified in writing of the admission decision.

Admission Requirements—International Applicants

Azusa Pacific University is authorized under federal law by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services and the U.S. Department of State to enroll nonimmigrant, alien undergraduate and graduate students. APU issues and administers both the I-20 and DS 2019 (F-1 and J-1 status documents respectively).

To apply for a graduate program at APU, the following requirements must be fulfilled in addition to meeting the domestic applicant and  program-specific admission requirements  specified above.

International applicants must also:

• Demonstrate proficiency in English through a placement test with the  Academic Success Center , or through a TOEFL/IELTS score that meets program-specific requirements. Refer to APU’s  English proficiency requirements  to learn more. Request that official test scores be sent to APU. All other forms of proof indicated in the English proficiency requirements must be submitted directly to International Services.
• Provide a  Graduate Affidavit of Financial Support (PDF)  and a bank statement from within the last six months proving financial ability to pay for education costs through personal, family, or sponsor resources.
• Submit a copy of a valid passport showing biographical data, including your name, country of citizenship, date of birth, and other legal information.
• Get foreign transcripts evaluated. International credentials (transcripts, certificates, diplomas, and degrees) must be evaluated by a foreign transcript evaluation agency. View our policy and a list of approved  Foreign Transcript Evaluation Agencies .

Conditional Admission

No GMAT or GRE score is required for the MS in Organizational Psychology. Conditional admits (those who have less than a 3.0 undergraduate GPA) may need to complete prerequisite courses.

Many financial aid options are available to make your   master’s in organizational psychology   affordable.

Delivering high-quality graduate programs takes a comprehensive support system. Your investment in an advanced degree includes a complete network of student services and access to a community of faculty and staff who partner with you in your pursuit of higher education. Below is a detailed breakdown of the fees associated with benefits and services that may be included in your degree program.

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All stated financial information is subject to change. Contact the Student Services Center at (626) 815-2020 for more information.

Several types of   financial aid   are available to graduate students. The resources range from federal loans and state grants to, for some graduate programs, fellowships and scholarships. For details about financial aid available for your program, please contact the   Student Services Center   at   (626) 815-2020 .

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Military members—and in some cases their spouses and dependents—qualify for   financial assistance   covering tuition, housing, and books. Azusa Pacific is a Yellow Ribbon University and Military Friendly School, so you can be confident that you’ll receive the benefits and flexibility you need to complete your education.

School of Business and Management Alumni Tuition Discounts

APU’s   School of Business and Management   offers an alumni tuition discount for APU alumni starting in the following graduate programs:

• Master of Arts in Leadership

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Master of business management (mbm).

• Master of Science in Organizational Psychology

Students must be in good academic standing and maintain satisfactory academic progress with a minimum cumulative grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0. Students must be enrolled at least half-time. If qualifications are met, the discount may be renewed each term. APU will pay $500 per term (up to $2,000 over the course of the program). This discount cannot be combined with other institutional aid. Contact   Student Financial Services   for complete eligibility details.

Note: Award and eligibility are applicable for the 2022-23 academic year and apply to students admitted beginning fall 2020. The discount is subject to change.

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Contact (626) 812-3016  or [email protected] , and visit  apu.edu/ssc  for details on the admissions process, financial aid, and class registration.

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International students should contact +1-626-812-3055 or  [email protected] , and visit  apu.edu/international/ .

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How to Align Training Programs with Organizational Goals using KPIs and AI

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Bill Brandon

Editor, Learning Solutions, The Learning Guild

The usual approach to designing training programs (learning experiences) begins by identifying targeted learning objectives (outcomes) supporting organizational goals. Measures called key performance indicators (KPIs) further clarify those objectives. Organizations can now shift to "SMART KPIs" powered and influenced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). This approach aims to maximize the impact of training initiatives on overall organizational performance by leveraging AI's analytical capabilities alongside human expertise.

Overview of the crucial steps to successful transformation

The classic approach to aligning training programs with organizational objectives is a familiar process for managers that begins with three essential steps:

• Identify organizational goals
• Determine relevant KPIs
• Design targeted training programs

These steps look simple, but there are some tricky details.

Steps to identify organizational goals

Identifying organizational goals begins with three key steps, which are tricky because they require collaboration between organizations and groups.

Determining needs

The crucial first step involves reviewing the organization's mission and vision, analyzing current business strategies, collaborating with department heads and subject matter experts, conducting meetings with senior leadership, examining industry trends and the competitive landscape, considering feedback from various departments, and prioritizing goals based on their potential impact and alignment with core values. Organizational goals include increasing market share, reducing employee turnover, or launching new product lines.

Determining relevant KPIs

This step requires breaking down each goal into measurable components, collaborating with department heads and subject matter experts, ensuring KPIs are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound), considering both leading and lagging indicators, limiting the number of KPIs to a manageable set, and verifying that data is available. KPIs effectively measure progress toward goals. Relevant KPIs include sales revenue per employee, customer satisfaction scores, employee engagement levels, time-to-market for new products, error rates, and number of innovative ideas implemented.

Designing targeted training programs

This step includes conducting a thorough needs analysis, prioritizing training needs, developing learning objectives linked to KPIs and goals, selecting appropriate training methodologies, creating relevant content, incorporating real-world scenarios, designing assessments, building in opportunities for application, developing a communication plan to articulate how the training connects to goals and KPIs, and creating a post-training support system that reinforces learning and encourages behavior change.

Challenges in identifying organizational goals and an AI strategy for dealing with each

There are three frequent challenges to goal setting and an AI strategy for each:

• Lack of clarity and consensus : Different stakeholders may have varying perspectives on priorities, leading to conflicting views and a lack of clear direction. Use AI-powered sentiment analysis and natural language processing to identify common themes and areas of misalignment in internal communications, surveys, and feedback;
• Short-term vs. long-term balance : Organizations often need help balancing immediate objectives with long-term strategic goals. Implement AI-driven predictive modeling and scenario analysis tools to simulate the long-term impacts of various short-term decisions.
• Adapting to rapid change : The fast-paced business environment makes it challenging to set stable long-term goals as market conditions, technologies, and customer preferences shift rapidly. Use AI for real-time market intelligence and trend forecasting, analyzing large amounts of data to identify emerging trends and potential disruptions.

Challenges to using AI to identify KPIs and a strategy for each

• Challenges to data quality and availability : AI systems require high-quality, comprehensive data, but organizations often need help with complete or consistent data, legacy systems, lack of historical data, and data privacy concerns. To address data quality and availability, implement a comprehensive data governance framework, including establishing data quality standards, creating a centralized data warehouse, implementing data cleansing processes, and regularly auditing data quality.
• Challenges to contextual understanding and nuance : AI may need help to grasp the full business context and nuances that human experts understand intuitively, potentially leading to statistically significant but practically irrelevant KPI suggestions. Adopt a hybrid AI-human approach, using AI for initial analysis, having domain experts review and refine suggestions, incorporating qualitative inputs, and training the AI system.
• Adaptability to changing goals and environments : AI Systems may face challenges in quickly adapting to new strategic directions or recognizing when established KPIs become obsolete. To enhance adaptability, implement an agile AI system with continuous learning capabilities, regularly retrain the model, use reinforcement learning techniques, and incorporate external data sources.

Challenges in designing targeted training programs and AI suggestions for better KPIs

• Establishing clear causal links : It can be challenging to connect specific training interventions to improvements in KPIs since so many factors beyond training can influence performance. To develop clear causal links, implement a robust measurement and evaluation framework, including pre-training assessments, control groups, multi-level evaluation models, data analytics, and qualitative data collection. Yes, that's a far cry from actual practice in some organizations. However, each of those practices is crucial to the best outcomes.
• Balancing breadth and depth : KPIs often represent complex aspects of organizational performance, making it challenging to decide on the appropriate scope and depth of training content. To balance scope breadth and depth, adopt a modular, personalized approach, breaking content into focused modules aligned with specific KPI components, creating a core curriculum with specialized modules, and using adaptive learning technologies. These steps are essential to ensure learner engagement.
• Ensuring training transfer and sustained behavior change : Translating learning into on-the-job performance improvements that affect KPIs can be difficult due to resistance to change, lack of practice opportunities, and motivation issues. Develop a comprehensive transfer of learning ecosystem, including real-world projects, post-training action planning, mentoring programs, peer learning networks, performance support tools, and aligned performance management systems. Without transfer and sustained behavior change, has the desired learning taken place?

Research results underscore the importance of aligning training initiatives with organizational goals and using data-driven approaches to measure and improve effectiveness. AI has potential to enhance these processes.

The strategies outlined in this article aim to create more targeted, effective training programs that directly contribute to organizational success.

August 14, 2024

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Deconstructing silos to discover savings: The end-to-end excellence playbook for retailers

The squeeze on retailers’ profits is tighter than ever. And while some retailers are struggling to eke out value, the best are pulling away from the rest (Exhibit 1). Those that are left behind have already picked the low-hanging fruit to combat the sector’s headwinds: they have tried to solve their operational problems with localized solutions, to limited effect. But if they want to protect their margins and gain a competitive edge, they’ll need to take a more radical and transformative approach.

End-to-end (e2e) excellence is a paradigm-shifting mindset that also doubles as an operations playbook. Tackling the toughest retail operations problems with a “whole business” approach, as e2e excellence calls for, may seem like a “nice to have” rather than a critical strategic imperative for retailers. But this way of operating can transform retailers’ operations and retain margins in a challenging economic environment. So why haven’t retailers adopted it? Applying the principles of e2e excellence in retail operations  requires breaking down stubborn silos in operations, both functionally and metaphorically—a herculean task.

To achieve e2e excellence, retailers must convene cross-functional teams, arm these teams with timely data, tools, and technology that translate across functions, and communicate a shared mission . There’s a strong business case for doing so: when implementing individual solutions across functions, retailers typically achieve 5 to 10 percent cost savings, based on our research. An e2e transformation, meanwhile, yields 10 to 15 percent cost savings and also improves the customer experience, thanks to streamlined operations.

In this article, we outline three types of e2e transformations within the retail value chain and identify a set of actions that retailers can implement to help make this strategic imperative a reality.

Three problems, three e2e transformations

On the journey to enterprise-wide e2e excellence, retailers can begin attacking their toughest problems by applying e2e principles in discrete areas. The three transformation examples below—which address in-stock rates, network optimization, and returns—are multifaceted issues for which no single solution exists. They also affect multiple points across the retail value chain, from vendors to customers, making them ideal e2e transformation candidates.

Improving in-stock rates

During the height of global supply disruptions fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, out-of-stock products became a perpetual headache for customers, retailers, and suppliers alike. Fluctuations in global supply led to sharp yo-yo patterns in inventory: general-merchandise stores in the United States, for example, saw a dip in inventory of nearly 15 percent and a glut of inventory that grew by 50 percent—all within a year. Four years later, out-of-stock products continue to plague store shelves. However, the root causes are more varied than ever and cut across functions. Retailers cannot solely blame the global supply chain; nor can they expect store teams alone to solve out-of-stock issues.

One retailer sought to tackle this problem by building out a detailed root cause tree that traced out-of-stock products from vendors to store shelves (table). The retailer conducted an analysis across the value chain using detailed data at the store SKU level to identify drivers of every out-of-stock item.

There can be dozens of first- and second-order causes for out-of-stock items, which make the problem a complicated one for retailers to solve.

Each function played a critical role in improving the retailer’s in-stock rates. Merchandising worked closely with supply chain teams to optimize buying plan timelines, supply chain worked closely with store teams to improve outbound pick accuracy and delivery timelines, and store teams worked closely with IT and e-commerce to use on-shelf monitoring systems to alert the store teams to restock shelves at appropriate times during the day.

By pinpointing the specific ways in which each function can affect in-stock rates, the retailer was able to identify processes that needed improvement. In our experience, a one-percentage-point improvement in presubstitution in-stock rates can boost sales by 20 to 35 basis points. Improving in-stock rates has also been shown to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, since it frees up employees to focus their time on customer-facing tasks rather than hunting down products in a stock room. This may also improve employee morale.

Improving network design

Retailers typically evaluate the design of their network of stores and distribution centers on a quarterly or annual basis to decide where to invest in capacity or rightsize unnecessary leases. The standard approach is to gather high-level inputs from across the retail organization, such as top-line sales growth forecasts and planned store openings and closures. But the modeling software that many retailers use is often limited, since it can only process inputs related to supply chain optimization for a single channel—for example, only brick-and-mortar or only e-commerce. Our experience shows that when retailers consider networking optimization inputs across all channels, they can unlock more value.

One retailer went beyond the traditional approach by applying the e2e principles to network optimization. It convened a cross-functional team consisting of supply chain, merchandising, and finance leaders. The team gathered inputs from the relevant functions: the merchandising function offered data about product segmentation to inform the optimal mix of product in each distribution center, while the finance department provided granular growth forecasts to help identify where physical capacity may be needed. Store teams provided detailed labor estimates, which enabled a better understanding of new-store and distribution center costs.

Feeding all these inputs into a customizable tool (to create modeling software that was more advanced than off-the-shelf options) yielded more sophisticated outputs. The retailer also used advanced analytics and digital twins to model the optimal future state of the network. This provided the retailer with about 20 “what if” scenarios to consider across multiple channels. (Some of the scenarios addressed hypotheticals such as, “What if shoes and apparel orders were both fulfilled in this distribution center?” or “What if we added a distribution center to this new region?”) The e2e transformation ultimately reduced online orders’ click-to-deliver time by a full day—and cut end-to-end supply chain operating costs by 10 percent.

Reining in returns

Returns are one of the most pressing—and most expensive—problems that e-commerce and fashion retailers face. In 2023, US consumers returned 14.5 percent of total retail sales, 1 2023 Consumer returns in the retail industry , National Retail Federation, December 22, 2023. amounting to a staggering $743 billion in merchandise. (The return rate was even higher for online sales, at 17.6 percent.)

Retailers that implement localized solutions to reduce returns often end up with incremental improvements or, worse, ballooning costs elsewhere in the organization. For example, one retailer shortened its returns window by 15 days to allow for more inventory turns. While customers did return their items within fewer days postpurchase, the retailer also fielded a surge of customer complaints about the new policy. The rise in call center volume created higher costs; declining customer satisfaction scores, meanwhile, translated to declining revenues. Eventually, the retailer reverted to the old policy.

Localized actions like these fail to account for unintended consequences across the value chain and are compounded by the number of handoffs between functions, of which there are many (Exhibit 2). For any given retail process, more handoffs between functions creates more opportunities for things to go wrong.

Let’s examine how another retailer tackled returns using an e2e approach. First, the retailer assembled a cross-functional team of leaders from areas such as merchandising and reverse logistics to assess the current state of returns. This team interviewed stakeholders and annotated handoffs between functions to create a reverse-logistics process map.

By mapping the returns process, the team identified five system information flows, seven handoffs between functions, and 20 process breakage points that led to an influx of returns and a buildup of returned goods in the distribution center. The team developed a solution for each breakage point, prioritizing quick wins, such as automating approvals of customer returns. As a result, the retailer increased the speed of inventory disposition—which several functions already understood and were measured against—by three times. This approach also helped fuel future sales by unlocking 60 percent of capital otherwise tied up in dead inventory.

The e2e approach not only improved KPIs in the short term but also informed operational decisions to preserve those gains over the long term. During the retailer’s next wave of vendor negotiations, the merchandising teams added new language to their returns clauses, guided by their returns process mapping exercise, to recoup value from returned items while optimizing for customer experience. The customer experience teams began piloting changes to the returns window to test customer response. The retailer also designed an automated alert system to replace the manual handoffs that occurred between teams.

What end-to-end excellence requires

As these transformation case studies demonstrate, e2e excellence is both an operating model and mindset shift that enables retailers to better serve customers, improve operations, and drive top- and bottom-line growth. Retailers that pursue e2e excellence can find the “in-betweens” of value—or value that becomes obscured or lost due to inefficient handoffs between teams or opaque processes. The value in a retail business does not come from the sum of its parts alone; it comes when the functions work together.

To make e2e excellence a reality, retailers should take the following actions:

Align on an organization-wide goal

The first step toward e2e excellence is for company leadership to agree upon one shared goal that everyone should meet and be measured against. This goal should be endorsed by the CEO and COO, whose buy-in will help remove roadblocks, enforce decision making, and create a solution-focused mindset that will trickle down to the rest of the organization.

To identify this goal, a retailer should conduct a holistic assessment of its operations to understand where opportunities lie and to identify the areas where the complexities and costs are highest. Once the e2e opportunities are identified, leaders should align on the answers to two additional questions. First, should the organization go all-in on tackling a specific cross-functional problem, or undertake an end-to-end transformation that addresses multiple problems in parallel?

One example of a shared goal that a retailer might identify is product shelf availability. From the customer’s point of view, the only metric that matters is whether an item is available on a store shelf when they want to buy it. To that end, a retailer might set a company-wide “on-shelf availability” target, rather than separate targets that apply to the distribution centers or the stores.

Empower leaders to reach across the organization

Second, and often more difficult than deciding which problems to tackle, is the question of how to organize and empower the e2e team. The team should be made up of leaders who wield influence across functions, are deeply knowledgeable in their respective functions, and demonstrate a can-do attitude. Without this kind of leadership, business silos and department hierarchies will win out, diminishing the effectiveness of an e2e transformation. Scheduling a regular cadence of war rooms or weekly stand-ups can help keep leaders working together. Additionally, these leadership teams may deploy SWAT-style task forces, which have deep expertise on a given issue and can efficiently implement new processes.

Since e2e transformations are implemented concurrently with daily operations, retail leaders should free up capacity for their teams to handle both e2e transformation priorities and daily tasks. In the successful transformation cases we’ve seen, retail leaders allow their teams to spend half of their time working on e2e projects and the other half dedicated to daily tasks. This allows employees to keep up with what’s going on in their functions (something separate transformation teams lack) while collaborating on the broader transformation project. If this does not happen, the long-term e2e transformation may become deprioritized against more time-sensitive tasks.

Prioritize data transparency

Data transparency allows retailers to identify a problem’s root causes, quantify impact, and prioritize solutions. But making data transparent and accessible across an organization is also one of retailers’ most difficult tasks, especially if major functions take a myopic view of the business and design narrow metrics of success. For example, merchants may measure the fill rate to distribution centers for their subset of vendors but may neglect to consider total fill rates across distribution centers for other vendors. This kind of tunnel vision can lead to a slew of problems, such as stock imbalances or cost inefficiencies.

To establish data transparency, retailers should create universally defined, cross-functional metrics that all functions can use and be held accountable to. (An example of one of these metrics is inventory days on hand, which both supply chain and merchandising functions would need to understand.) One way to accomplish this is to “marry the data” between retail functions, which typically requires integration across multiple systems. In the in-stock example, retailers must marry the distribution center inventory count with the perpetual inventory count measured in stores, a highly variable number, in order for the distribution centers to accurately replenish the stores. Retailers must also understand data handoffs and potential drops or translation issues that occur between systems and teams.

Deploy advanced technology solutions

Advanced technology tools can drive integration among business units and help ensure that new processes have staying power. In the case of improving in-stock rates (a prime candidate for an e2e transformation), advanced analytics can take signals from perpetual inventory, points of sale, and online ordering to predict when an item will go out of stock and alert the stores to take action. Generative AI, meanwhile, can field call center complaints to identify network delivery issues, while machine learning algorithms can improve end-to-end forecasting for complex promotions.

An end-to-end transformation changes how retailers address margin opportunities and collaborate across functional silos—thereby not only improving business operations but also creating an environment that attracts top talent. A combination of common, clear goals; the right team; and a whole-business mindset can help retailers untangle long-standing operational issues—and lay the foundation for success in the years ahead.

Colleen Baum is a senior partner in McKinsey’s New York office; Sarah Touse is a partner in the Boston office; Tim Lange is a partner in the Cologne office; and Tabitha Strobel is an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office.

The authors wish to thank Andrew Davis, Bill Mutell, Doug Coppage, and Frank Sänger for their contributions to this article.

This article was edited by Alexandra Mondalek, an editor in the New York office.

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The case for transparency in the workplace, and its impact on organizational performance.

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Andrew Rahaman, Ed.D and co-founder of bluSPARC™ , focuses on succession management through executive coaching, onboarding and assessments.

In today's evolving workplace, leaders at all levels are looking to create hybrid/flexible arrangements, an inclusive environment, and development plans. But what many employers don't focus enough on is providing greater transparency into decision making. Employees want to know what's going on and how they play a part in the solution.

Research by Slack shows that over 80% of workers want a better understanding of how decisions are made, and 87% of job seekers say they look for transparency in a future workplace.

How Does Transparency Affect Organizational Performance?

A transparent workplace promotes consistent conversations between managers and employers with honest discussions about goals, objectives and performance. This trickles down into the organization.

Organizational transparency has significant benefits.

1. It increases employee engagement.

When you consider just 21% of employees are engaged at work, according to Gallup, finding ways to increase engagement is essential. Seventy percent of employees say continual updates on strategy from senior leadership is a big engagement driver.

When employees are more engaged, there is:

• Lower turnover

• Reduced stress/burnout

• Better customer service

• Lower rates of absenteeism

• Improved collaboration

2. It leads to higher profit.

Organizations with a high degree of transparency report profit margins that are 21% higher than average. These organizations provide the information employees need to take care of customers, leading to better customer service. In turn, this creates greater trust among customers.

There is a direct correlation between engagement and overall business performance . Unengaged employees are 18% less productive, according to Gallup. Conversely, organizations reporting high levels of engagement have 22% higher productivity.

When leaders at all levels clearly understand goals, they are also more likely to look for new or innovative ways to accomplish them.

3. It builds trust.

As former CEO of GE Jack Welch said, "Trust happens when leaders are transparent, candid and keep their word."

Transparency builds trust, and trust is the cornerstone of accountability, results and creativity. Leaders at all levels better understand how and why decisions are made, and it fosters open dialogue. When people trust and believe in leadership and understand what is expected, they are more committed to their work. They know how their job fits into the company's mission and how their work impacts its success.

According to a study in Harvard Business Review , employees in high-trust workplaces are 76% more engaged and 29% more satisfied with their lives.

How Do You Create Workplace Transparency?

Cultivating a transparent culture in the workplace requires a proactive approach to your company's direction. Here are three steps you can take to improve organizational transparency.

1. Provide your employees with a clear development path.

Employees at all levels often leave organizations when they don't see development opportunities. They think of their work as a job rather than a career and are more attracted to organizations offering advancement opportunities.

Employees should know what it takes to advance and what skills and experiences they need to develop. Employers need to create a clear development path with growth opportunities. This should begin as part of the hiring process and continue to be reinforced in the workplace. For example, decisions about promotions and advancement should align with an employee growth plan to demonstrate a commitment to employee development.

A development path also fosters a culture of learning. Employees are more likely to seek opportunities to learn new skills when they know how it can accelerate their careers.

2. Ensure business objectives and goals are aligned.

Aligning business objectives with goals helps establish a culture of transparency. Employees have a better grasp of what is expected and how their performance impacts goals.

According to a study by Harvard Business Review , only 40% of employees say they are clear on their company's strategies and key objectives. That means as many as 60% of employees are unsure of what it takes to succeed.

3. Communicate effectively and provide feedback to your employees.

The key to transparency is effective communication, which starts at the top. Business leaders must embrace a company culture of transparency as a policy item and actively take part. Employees today want to know why they are being asked to do something rather than just being told what to do.

This is a significant and necessary change for many executives. When the Edelman Trust Barometer first surveyed employees about their managers in 2013, a stunning 82% of employees said they did not trust their boss to tell the truth. Significant progress has been made, but less than half of employees today say they trust their boss.

A lack of trust can grow from poor or no communication, unclear goals, or a failure to take ownership of mistakes. These ineffective management processes create doubt and disbelief, especially if employees see managers say one thing but do another — for example, managers who play favorites in the workplace or fail to address poor performers.

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Another key component is providing consistent feedback. Employees need to know where they stand and how they perform against goals. Managers and supervisors need feedback on how they are doing as well.

Effective feedback should not be relegated to year-end company performance reviews: consistent and regular feedback creates greater transparency and accountability.

It's also something employees want. Workers say that feedback helps them focus on important tasks, and it also helps engagement. A Gallup study shows that employees were four times more likely than other employees to be engaged when managers provided meaningful feedback within the past week.

Building a transparent workplace culture doesn't happen by accident. It takes consistent focus and intention.

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