Benefits of Outcome Based Thinking

Benefits of Outcome Based Thinking

I remember I was in a meeting where we were discussing a tech fair that we were going to hold to present some of the latest technological advances to our business partners.

Our CIO asked if there were any questions, and I raised my hand and asked what’s the goal we’re trying to achieve with this, what’s the result that we are looking to achieve.

Before the CIO could answer, our head of HR threw down his pencil, stood up and said ‘Tredgold, what is it with you and outcomes, you seem obsessed with them”.

The room went quiet, as many were surprised at this sudden outburst, and then they looked to me to see how I would respond.

I simply smiled and said ‘thank you for the compliment”.

Too often I see clients starting initiatives with no clue as to what the outcome is that they are looking for.

Sometimes they are just copying the latest management trend or business fad such as Big Data, Data Analytics, or Digital Marketing, etc., but they do it with no clear outcome in mind.

They just follow the herd and hope that something magical will happen and their decision will pay off. But it doesn’t work that way.

I think Stephen Covey said it best with habit two of his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People which is ‘begin with the end in mind.’

When you know the destination, or have a clear picture of what success looks like it’s so much easier to put the right plan in place to achieve it.

If you want to have more success, you have to work on having an outcome based thinking mindset. You need to be constantly asking yourself what is the result you are looking to achieve.m and the more you ask that question, the stronger that mindset will become.

It will help you sharpen your focus, eliminate tasks that add no value and help increase your effectiveness.

It also helps you to communicate better with your teams and work to empower them because if you can tell them the outcome you are looking for, you can leave them to determine the best way to achieve it.

For any project or activity that you are planning to initiate if you cannot clearly articulate the desired outcome, then you should question whether it needs to be done, or you need to go back to the drawing board and figure it out.

The clearer you can define the desired outcome, the more likely you are to achieve it.

If you want to help define your desired outcomes or need help in achieving them, then email me at Gordon@gordontredgold.com to arrange a free strategy session.