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Goal Setting Strategies that Fuel Change

More and more trainers are invited into C-suites as facilitators, strategic advisors, and leadership development experts. Having consultant-grade tools and capabilities can make those interactions invaluable to senior execs. We spoke to L&D expert David Dye, co-founder of Let’s Grow Leaders, about his card deck, Synergy Stack. The Synergy Stack deck is an excellent resource to help focus executives and fuel change at the highest levels of the organization, as well as at each level down the line.

3 Requirements for Affecting Change

1) People need to WANT IT!

Help people figure out why a change is important to them. Help them tap into their own desire. You can’t give this to anyone else. They need to own it for themselves. Change, the kind you want, doesn’t “just happen.” People make it happen.

2) People need to OWN IT!

Those who feel no ownership over a change are unlikely to help make it happen. So, if you want to change to happen, in addition to “wanting it,” you need to “own it” and take responsibility for it. Coaches, spouses, partners, and friends know this too. We can’t change others, or “make” them change. Change agents must do it themselves.

3) People Need to know HOW TO DO IT

Once people identify WHAT they want and are ready to take responsibility for making change happen, the question is HOW. How can we help our leaders and colleagues make change happen? The key is what David Dye refers to as the Performance Loop.

Using the Synergy Stack Performance Loop to Fuel Change

Synergy Stackis’s Performance Loop is built around 48 HABITS, divided into 4 categories.

  • CONNECTION: the first 12 habits relate to having a team you can trust.
  • CLARITY: these 12 habits refer to developing a shared understanding of what success looks like.
  • CURIOSITY: the third step in the loop consists of 12 habits that encourage change-makers to consider alternative approaches and perspectives.
  • COMMITMENT: the final 12 habits focus on agreement, celebration, and accountability.

When using the deck, Dye recommends laying all of the cards out of a table. Then have teams look through the cards to:

  • Identify habits in which they feel they are quite strong
  • See if multiple teammates have the same strengths or different ones
  • Identify the habits which seem to be lacking among the group
  • Discuss the impact of lacking habits
  • Explore ways to encourage or develop new habits that could serve the group well.

Facilitators and coaches might focus on a single performance category, or on all four elements.

Developing new habits requires trial and error, practice, and commitment. Appropriately, the Synergy Stack deck offers language on each habit card, exemplifying what it might sound like, so practitioners can develop new skills and habits.

Making change happen – from wish to habit

Achieving a goal certainly depends upon individuals wanting change and owning it. Even then, however, implementing change and attaining success requires habits of communication, clarity, curiosity, and commitment.

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