What My Daughter’s Preschool Has Taught Me About Goals

We grow up wanting to work. Pretending like we have cell phones and computers. Dreaming of driving bulldozers and space ships. 

And once we’re grown we look forward to bedtime, try to remind ourselves how to play, and do everything in our power to work less. 

Why is this? 

Why does work feel like a weight? 

This month my daughter’s preschool started to assign jobs. There is a list of jobs that this group of two-year-olds rotates through. There is door holder, book chooser, and bell ringer, but her favorite is safety helper. The safety helper is in charge of pushing the chairs back underneath the table after snack and then lunch.

I’m sure she will tire of these new responsibilities soon, but for now she’s pushing in chairs wherever she can find them. At home, restaurants or my office, no chair can hide in an unsafe area on her watch. 

As it stands, her job is challenging and achievable. 

If we could all be so lucky to have a job that is “challenging and achievable.” It is the sweet spot for work at all ages. It is the way that work remains fun and we contribute most. 

We just wrapped up our annual meeting for our small franchising team. My brother and King of Pops co-founder, Nick, facilitated the meeting, and the four of us spend 1.5 days getting on the same page, solving issues, setting annual goals, and ultimately assigning our quarterly ROCKS. 

A ROCK as defined by EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system we use in our business, as “one of the three to seven most important things you must get done in the next 90 days.”

A good ROCK is a few things.

It moves the company towards its larger goals. It sets a focus for a large-ish project with a specific deadline. Everyone is in the room when they are assigned, so there is a higher level of accountability. 

The book Traction, which outlines EOS, suggests an 80% success rate for ROCKS. Meaning four out of five would be completed 90 days later when the next quarterly takes place. 

I’d say, for the 10+ years we’ve been doing this, we probably complete a little less than half of our ROCKS.

It’s not for lack of effort; We just fail to take the time to make sure our ROCKS are S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely). Our quarterly meeting cadence almost always ensures that the ROCK ends up being relevant and timely, but the first three specific, measurable and achievable always trip us.

Don’t over think it. Just begin. For my daughter, her goal is to push in the chairs after snack and lunch every day at school. Thanks to her teachers for setting her first S.M.A.R.T. goal and making her “work” more fun.

Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals is one of the best ways to make work “challenging and acheivable” and ultimately more fun.

Here’s what I’ve learned when setting S.M.A.R.T. ROCKS over the years.

Specific

For me, this one is the hardest. We want to achieve everything, so we make it broad. As a manager this makes it feel like we’re getting more value out of our team, but in reality it dampens the impact. Getting super specific forces you to define what is important instead of another rallying cry to get more work done.

Measurable

My favorite goals have a number attached. The teams I’ve been involved with push back on selecting a number because it feels somewhat out of their control. A good ROCK could be as simple as “Sell six new King of Pops franchises” in the next 90 days

Achievable

Like I said above, we accomplish about 50% of our ROCKS. The sweet spot is a little higher. At the end of the day the best ROCKS are not a one-and-done kind of thing, but the beginnings of a new norm in your business. Over the years, I’ve aspired to making the ROCKS more achievable, but my value seeking owner hat does often get the best of me. 

Relevent

In our annual meeting we update our 3-year picture and 1-year plan. A good ROCK is working towards the 1-year plan. Pet projects often make their way into the conversation, but it’s important that ROCKS align with longer term objectives in order to keep things interesting for the entire team.

Time Bound

This one is super easy when it comes to ROCKS. They are quarterly goals. We’ve found this works best if we go ahead and set the date and time of the next quarterly and make it infinitely clear both when they are set and in the write-up that it is due by the time the meeting starts on the date chosen. It stings to put an “X” next to the ROCK that has a single todo remaining, but if you don’t things will continue to linger.