On the home straight
Implementing goals OKR, SMART & Co. sound ideal on paper. But how does it work in everyday life? These four practical examples show how companies create clarity and make success measurable. Let them inspire you!
Method 1: Visioning
Moritz von Soden has a good reason to think about company goals: “I rely on managing by goals because I don’t understand anything about implementation,” says the owner of Bornemann Gewindetechnik in Delligsen near Hildesheim. The 48-year-old is the third generation to run the business. His father-in-law was still a screwdriver himself – he knew the trade from the ground up and, if necessary, would lend a hand himself.
This changed when von Soden and his wife Kathrin joined the company in 2008 and took over the management six years later. The academics brought with them a completely different management culture: “We are dependent on a second management level that has understood our goals and can implement them in day-to-day work,” explains von Soden. His ideal situation: “The top management sets the goal, but not the way to get there.”
Bornemann Gewindetechnik is a classic German medium-sized company: The company with 53 employees has occupied a niche, the individual production of special threaded spindles for industry. With generation change, the company began to deliver from the province of Lower Saxony all over the world: Today, more than half of its turnover comes from exports. In order to achieve this, the management worked early on with analyses of strengths and weaknesses, annual targets and catalogs of measures.
But one thing was neglected: “I always asked myself: How can I bring these goals into the company? How can I get my team excited about them?” recalls the owner. “I couldn’t do that with a strengths and weaknesses matrix.” Von Soden found the missing piece of the puzzle when he first heard about the visioning method. This involves designing and writing down a very specific vision of the future: What will the company look like in five years? What will we have achieved by then? Looking back, what are we proud of?
Visioning relies on the inspiring power of imagination. In 1961, US President John F. Kennedy formulated the vision that a man would land on the moon and return safely to earth by the end of the decade. This concretely painted picture of the future helped to ensure that the plan became reality. It would hardly have had the same effect if he had said: “We want to strengthen our space program.”
The concept of visioning was developed by the social psychologist Ronald O. Lippitt and the futurologist Edward Lindaman, who was involved in the planning of the Apollo space program in the 1960s, which ultimately led to the successful moon landing of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
“The big advantage of this method is that it creates images in everyone’s minds, so I can pick people up in a completely different way,” says von Soden. Entrepreneurs can use this principle for themselves: “In patriarchal companies, the founder’s personality is something like a vision made flesh. But that doesn’t work in management-oriented leadership.” What is needed here is a mission statement that everyone can rally behind – a shared vision of the future that is being worked towards.
Involving the team in goal setting
In 2023, von Soden attended an impulse visioning seminar and learned that the vision is most effective when it is developed by the team. “To do this, I first had to learn to let go of my relatively dominant personality.” In January 2024, the entire workforce took the time to work on the company vision. The management only contributed an initial draft. “That was then picked apart.”
Some things were included in the vision, others were dropped. For example, employee participation was added as a new company goal. Von Soden had to abandon his plan to include more in-house developments in the range in future. “I would have liked to have pushed for this by 2030, but the team was against it.” The fear: even more new projects would only tie up resources that would be lacking elsewhere.
Employee Fabian Eggers has also contributed to the vision. The mechanical engineer is responsible for error management at Bornemann Gewindetechnik. “At first, everyone was skeptical when they were asked to write a vision,” he reports. The task was: Imagine it’s 2030, we’re at a company party and looking back on the year – where are we now? Many people found this difficult at first. However, new ideas emerged from the group discussions. “In the end, it was all very concrete and down-to-earth.”
If you want to lead with goals, you should involve your employees in the goal-setting process. Leadership coach Tom Senninger says: “A vision has to be developed by the whole team, otherwise some of them won’t feel that they are being listened to.” Those who are not involved may react with rejection: “I’m being told where to go.” Motivation within the team is crucial for success. “Studies show that agreed goals are twice as likely to succeed as goals that are dictated from above.”
The “Vision 2030” now hangs in the entrance area of Bornemann Gewindetechnik, printed on three large Plexiglas panels. “We want everyone to see that we are committed to these goals,” says von Soden. A visible sign to visitors, but also to the employees: “This can be very meaningful for everyone who was involved in the creation of this vision,” says management expert Senninger. “They recognize ‘their’ shared vision of the future and perhaps feel inspired.”
But a vision is just a pious wish if no work is done to implement it. Von Soden is therefore planning to highlight all passages that have already been implemented in green. “Such visualizations prevent misunderstandings because everyone has the same thing in mind,” says Senninger. The vision has also resulted in a printed company handbook aimed at customers, banks and media representatives.
In order to lead with goals, it is necessary to anchor them in everyday life. “Every sentence of the vision is backed up with concrete measures,” von Soden therefore announces. Which software should be purchased? Which model is suitable for employee participation? A version of the vision is therefore still hanging on paper in the company’s production hall, on which the implementation status is noted. This allows the team to see what needs to be done – and what has already been done.