Objectives & Tactics

[00:00:00]
>> So let's talk about objectives really quickly because these are a series of smaller targets that have to be hit in order to reach the goal. Okay, so let's walk through this really quickly. A definition of a goal is something you try to achieve usually long term, actions, advance progress in a very general sense.

[00:00:20]
There are several ways to reach a goal. Specific outcomes aren't necessary. I don't agree with that. But understood I wanted to include it, because there is awareness that there are several ways to reach a goal. And that's how we are defining strategy on an ongoing basis. Goal, characterized as a change of direction that will ultimately lead to a desired outcome.

[00:00:42]
Okay, let's differentiate that from objectives. A specific result that a person or system aims to achieve within a time frame and with available resources. So oftentimes, our objectives are projects, okay. Time frame is a series of smaller steps along the way to achieving a long-term goal. The objectives are very specific and measurable where a target is established.

[00:01:04]
That's a success metric, okay? Sometimes, the target equals delivered or done. And then objectives tend to be actions aimed at accomplishing a certain task. All right, why do I have all these lines? Okay, so here's an example of a goal and objectives. So Amanda Gobble answered the top state related questions for all Minnesota citizens.

[00:01:33]
Objectives, we have to prioritize and conduct research on our website audiences. That's an objective. We have to create a website governance plan to ensure ongoing adherence to audience needs, also an objective, okay? So goals tend to control objectives. And an objective can modify a goal, for example, if we end up doing the research and we find out that what people actually want is a travel brochure on mn.gov.

[00:01:58]
But that also never happens, okay? All right, and then we get into tactics. Tactics are what most of us have our heads down in every single day. And that is what it means to have a job. It is the opportunity to sort of step back and think from a strategic perspective is many times a luxury for a lot of us.

[00:02:26]
Even I see at like the VP level, a lot of times VPs are so heads down in email or in meetings 24/7, that they lose sight of their strategic. Okay, are we taking the right direction as a team or how or is what I am directing my teams to do?

[00:02:43]
Hoping further move us towards sort of our larger organizational goals. And in fact, I think a lot of times I will find myself thinking, why am I doing this in the first place? Like I'll have my head in a spreadsheet for example, and then realize I've been staring at numbers just because I feel like if I can get them to add up to a certain number, I'll feel better.

[00:03:04]
But that ultimately the half hour has been a tactic without any kind of a strategy or goal that it's just been a complete waste of my time or without that doesn't sit within, I should say, an objective. All these words, okay. So now, remember I showed this earlier and I said a list of stuff to do is not a strategy.

[00:03:23]
Now that you've identified your core objectives, now is when we get all our tactics together to meet those objectives, okay? Yeah, you can't have these because they don't map up to a strategy. That's a little joke. There's no specificity there. And then success metric measures the effectiveness of a tactic.

[00:03:46]
Okay, so really easy example is open rate on email. That is gonna, your tactic was to send an email newsletter. The open rate is the metric to define whether or not it worked, okay?