60 minute session: Goal setting
Session Focus
Set and share goals as a team, creating a shared sense of accountability and social connection.
About Goal Setting
Setting goals and sharing them is important because it builds clarity, alignment, and motivation.
Session Goal
Create shared clarity and motivation to inspire action towards goals – both personal and team.
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1. Goals – What + Who – (10 minutes)
Ask each member of the team to think about a personal goal they achieved in the last 18 months (big or small e.g. I moved house, I won my first tennis match, I improved my health).
Next, ask them to think about 2-3 people who helped that goal get achieved (my family member, friend, coach, mentor). Each person shares back the story of their achieved goal, who helped and how.
Unpack: goals are never achieved in a vacuum, we need to rely on others to make them happen. As a team, we can support each other to achieve our individual and collective goals.
2. Future Me – (20 minutes)
Ask each team member to work individually for 5 minutes to consider the following question:
‘If I improved professionally by 10% over the next 12 months – what would have changed? Note down 2-3 things (e.g. I’d make more decisions with data, I’d have become more assertive, I’d have expanded my social network at Work Inc.).
Unpack: These 10% changes form the basis of our personal goals. Consider ways as a team that you can support one another through feedback and support to make those 10% changes.
3. Future We – (20 minutes)
Choose a team goal to discuss. Next, discuss as a group how your personal goals connect to its achievement (e.g. I’ll practise being data driven if I own the market analysis, I’ll work on my collaboration with sales.)
Unpack: Who can support who? What are the strengths in the team that can be leveraged?
5. Commitments and Close - (10 minutes)
Ask each person to commit to a small next step in their goal, and share who they need help or support from to achieve it.
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The Science of Why This Works:
Specific, challenging goals enhance performance. Goal-setting theory shows that specific, moderately difficult goals (like '10% better') improve performance by 12-15% compared to vague aims like 'do your best' (Locke & Latham, 2002, 2006). The 10% framing creates an optimal challenge level: ambitious enough to motivate but achievable enough to sustain effort without overwhelm.
Social accountability drives follow-through. Studies show that people who make public commitments are significantly more likely to achieve their goals than those who keep goals private (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). When team members share commitments aloud, they activate consistency and social pressure mechanisms that strengthen follow-through.
Relational support sustains effort during setbacks. Meta-analyses confirm that social support significantly predicts goal achievement, with effects particularly strong when support is specific and actionable (Koestner et al., 2012; Prestwich et al., 2014). Explicitly mapping 'who helps who' creates the support infrastructure research shows is critical for maintaining motivation through challenges.