Milestones and cascading goals – Waymaker Support

Learning outcomes:

Not all goals are equal in life and business.

In the example we covered previously, ‘Launch 4WD electric vehicle with 1000 sales in pipeline’ there will be goals downstream (and upstream) of this goal that can be treated as stand-alone goals.

These goals will be assigned to other team members.

For example, you might assign the outcome, ‘Secure pipeline of 1,000 sales deposits by June 30, 2022’ to a head of sales.

We call that a cascade and cascading an outcome creates a Goal Stream.

In one click you can cascade an outcome from a team member or leader upstream into a downstream or sidestream goal.

Continuing with the example outlined above, the head of sales will receive the cascaded outcome as a goal assigned to them and they set their own outcomes on that goal. Their goal, however, is still the outcome of their colleague’s goal.

They can repeat the process with their team.

Cascades can go upstream, downstream or sidestream.

As an admin you will see in Waymaker that a goal can be marked as a milestone (if you don't have admin permissions you'll have to take our word for it).

A milestone makes a goal an important step in the journey to success. Typically, milestone goals are an annual goal for an organisation or a 3 or 5 year big hairy audacious goal in the strategic plan.

Use milestones sparingly.

Milestone goals are a pinnacle moment of success for the organisation. They are your finish lines and they set the tone of the race.

Lots of milestone goals may create an organisation that sprints continuously. Whereas only 1 or two milestone goals over a 3-year period may create a slow and steady ‘marathon’ culture. Each goal is a step on the journey to the milestone goals of success.

In summary the journey from A to Z is organised in goals, outcomes, and tasks. Goals are the building blocks of achievement.

Any organisation needs a single-minded goal that defines success and then all team members work towards that goal with their own goals downstream.

The most important goals are the milestones.