Thinking BIG

My most recent volunteer work with the Entrepreneurs’ Organization brought me to Dubai for the EO Accelerator Global Summit and inspired this month’s post: Thinking BIG. If ever there was a place where people think big, it’s Dubai. Known for its outlandish experiences and incredible architecture, Dubai is a showcase of big dreams.

But how does that relate to your own company? How can you think big to create your own big goals? Watch below as I talk about thinking BIG when it comes to goals.

Or you can read the transcription below (but you won’t’ get to see the amazing view).

I’m Chris Jones with Strategic Traction.

I’m here in Dubai, where everything is BIG. It’s like Las Vegas on steroids. Dubai has become a worldwide bucket-list destination because of the outlandish experiences, the incredible architecture. Let’s take the Burj Khalifa that is behind me. It’s the world’s tallest building at over 2700 feet. For those in Calgary that is more than four times the height of the Calgary Tower. Building this mega tall skyscraper didn’t happen overnight. It was a process.

The first step in that process was thinking BIG – to dream the impossible dream, right? They had a goal; a really big goal. Maybe it looked like this: Complete the world’s tallest, most audacious building EVER by 2008. Kinda sounds like a 10-year target from the EOS™ world, doesn’t it? Heck yeah! One really BIG thing, pretty audacious, but still reachable.

In this case, it’s never even been done before. Regardless, a goal of this magnitude is exciting for everyone in the company. Imagine being on the team that actually achieved this mega goal. How cool would that be for everyone involved: “Yep, see that? MY company built that!”

So that’s the whole idea behind a 10-year target: it’s something everyone can get behind. It’s that point on the shore we are all rowing towards. You choose the time frame. It might be 5, 10 or 30 years – you choose. But make it a goal worth chasing. Jim Collins talks about big hairy audacious goals or BHAG’s. So think big and audacious, but not too audacious. If it’s not realistic, a goal that’s too audacious can be demotivating and we certainly don’t want that.

I’ve been thinking big lately, thinking about expansion. Our new 10-year target is to help 800 companies implement EOS™ by 2027. Not quite sure how we’re going to do that yet, but it means there will be more people helping me at Strategic Traction in order to make it happen. It’s exciting for me. It’s waking me up at night. And it’s exciting for my team as well.

So, once you agree upon a BIG goal with your leadership team, the next steps are to create an action plan and then start executing on that plan. Because the goal will mean nothing unless you actually create a great plan and make tangible, meaningful progress towards that goal. This is where Vision meets Traction and that’s our topic for my next post, so stay tuned at StrategicTraction.ca

Now, go think BIG and figure out what your game-changing BIG goal is!