Accountability Trumps Will Power
We just finished up our last Goals setting meeting. It was a meeting where we fine-tuned our goals to determine what we could get done in the next quarter using the mind mapping activity that we completed earlier.
We all did great. Everyone was able to hone in on what they wanted to achieve in the next three months, stretch themselves a little but also being realistic. I asked the team to think about it as a mission for the next 3 months together and really ask themselves - is this the best that I can achieve for my business in the next three months?
Everyone did just that and it felt great. Next steps are to break that down into monthly goals and then weekly goals.
But what did we learn tonight? We all shared some interesting thoughts. All of us reported getting some unplanned things done. I spent the weekend working through my Dreambook, which actually helped me break down my work into action items for the next three months. M reported that she started her new blog and Instagram account that she'd been putting off for months because she didn't have a name and the right focus for it. K shared that she had actually gotten a little head of some of the goals breakdown and K2 had decided on her blogging schedule.
What everyone said was that we all felt a sense of accountability to each other. Only because we mentioned the prior week in passing that we would act on an idea. M asked for opinions on her blog name, some gave a few options. She liked one of them and said, I will set up my Instagram account. Based on just that, she felt compelled to set it up before we all got back together.
How incredibly interesting. And I was so excited to share how much I had accomplished.
The major theme of this program is just that - accountability. There are many coaching programs out there that share tons of goal-setting information and make tools and techniques available to you. Many folks offer live coaching sessions as well. But what I wanted to really leverage from the Scrum team formations of the corporate world, was the added benefit of shared focus and accountability.
That accountability is the reason for the weekly check-ins that we do. It forces you to face a group of peers that you committed something to. Ultimately, most of us want to please and we don't like letting people down. The simple act of committing to something and then following through is a sign of integrity in our culture.
We like to believe that we get things done via will power. Exercise, diet, work on other goals. And sometimes we have the focusand drive to push forward. But in a crazy world, with so many competing priorities, having peers that hold you accountable drives action.
At the end of the meeting, we do a checkout round to close out the meeting. Each of us just share what state we were ending the call on. We each thanked each other for keeping ourselves accountable to each other. That was the theme that came out of the call and that is what is inspiring action.
Is peer accountability something that would get you closer to your goals?
Read my previous post on the program pilot: Dream A Little
