Issue No. 23 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting is about goal setting and problem solving. Charles F. Kettering said, “Problems are the price of progress. Don't bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me.”
After 20 years of consulting with clients, Bobb Biehl had a startling insight about goal setting. Most teams have people who dislike goals. One senior-level person told him, “I have hated setting goals ever since I can remember, but I love solving problems. Every time someone asks (or insists) that I set goals, my stomach goes into knots. I get irritable, cranky, kick at the proverbial dog, and generally become miserable to live with around the house.”
In his book, Stop Setting Goals If You Would Rather Solve Problems, Biehl helps leaders and managers understand the two very distinct working preferences on their teams. The first group plays offense. Goal setters set goals and focus energies on hitting targets. Problem solvers shine when they define and solve problems. They’re the defensive unit.
Do you embrace the challenge of marketing a new product line (goal setting) or do you prefer improving the profitability of an existing product (problem solving)? Goals setters, Biehl says, talk about goals and dreams, new hills to climb, and golden opportunities. Problem solvers talk about problems and realities, following through on the commitments already made last year, maximizing and controlling, and overcoming roadblocks.
Check out more resources from Bobb Biehl.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1. When you watched the Super Bowl, what was most interesting to you, the offense or the defense?
2. Vote for one: A) The best defense is a strong offense. B) The best offense is a strong defense.
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Insights from the Management Buckets Workshop Experience
Envoy Financial has a “theme of the month,” according to Bethany Palmer, their executive director. Recent themes have included Focus, Priorities and Goals. Last month it was Affirmation (from The Culture Bucket). The Envoy team has a brief meeting every day and the designated hitter must address the month’s theme during the devotional/motivational thought for the day. Great idea!
Patrick Lencioni, author of Death by Meeting, urges teams to have four kinds of meetings on a regular basis. These include the Daily Check-in, the Weekly Tactical, the Monthly Strategic and the Quarterly Off-site Review.
In our Management Buckets Workshop Experience, we’ll give you in-the-trenches ways to integrate The Culture Bucket with The Meeting Bucket in your organization. Those buckets are just two of 20 Critical Competencies Required for Leading and Managing Today’s Nonprofit Organization.
Email me to reserve space in the May 9-10 Management Buckets workshop or the May 11 Nonprofit Board Governance workshop, both planned for Orange County, California.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1. Be honest—what do you love and what do you hate about our meetings and the frequency of our meetings?
2. When you’re driving home at night and reflect, “That was a GREAT meeting today!” what happened in the meeting to pump you up?
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Download the Management Buckets brochure
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