New Year, New Path: Making Organizational and Personal Goals Actually Stick

The start of a new year often inspires ambition, fresh resolutions, and bold goal-setting. Organizations are no exception, diving headfirst into lofty plans for growth, innovation, and transformation.

The harsh reality is that 60-90% of organizational strategies fail. That’s a sobering statistic and a powerful reminder that careful, realistic planning is the key to success.

Just like individual New Year’s resolutions, organizational goal-setting can quickly become an exercise in overreach. Consider this: research shows that 80% of people abandon their personal resolutions by February, often because they set overly ambitious goals without realistic plans to achieve them. Both personal resolutions and organizational strategies are built on the same psychological and practical foundations. The desire for improvement is universal, but the path to success requires discipline, clarity, and adaptability—and of course a big dose of reality.

Start Small, Start Realistic

Success requires starting small and staying realistic. Whether you’re setting organizational goals or personal resolutions, the principles are remarkably similar:

1. Focus on Fewer Priorities

Don’t spread your resources thin by chasing too many objectives. Instead, identify two or three high-impact goals and commit to them fully. Research by FranklinCovey found that organizations trying to achieve more than three goals at a time achieve none.  Similarly, personal resolution data shows that focusing on a single habit—like walking 10 minutes a day—leads to higher success rates than tackling multiple changes at once.

2. Make It Specific and Measurable

Vague aspirations lead to vague results. Whether it’s "increase customer satisfaction by 10%" or "implement a new workflow by Q3," define success with clear metrics and timelines. On the personal side, resolutions like "exercise more" often fail, while specific goals like "run twice a week" are more likely to stick.

3. Build for Incremental Wins

Break larger goals into smaller, manageable steps. Just as individuals might aim to lose five pounds before tackling 50, organizations can focus on achieving short-term wins to build momentum and confidence. For example, achieving a 5% efficiency improvement in one department can pave the way for broader operational overhauls.

4. Acknowledge Constraints

Recognize the internal and external challenges that might limit progress. Whether it’s resource shortages, market volatility, or change fatigue among employees, planning for obstacles makes goals more achievable. This mirrors personal struggles like time constraints or motivation dips—give yourself some grace and realize that you may need a bit of wiggle room.

5. Celebrate Progress

Celebrating small victories keeps teams motivated and aligned. It’s the same reason personal trainers encourage clients to celebrate small milestones on the way to larger fitness goals. In the workplace, acknowledging incremental wins—like reaching a quarterly sales target—helps maintain momentum and engagement.

Why Strategies Fail

Organizational strategies fail for many reasons, including:

  1. Poor Execution: A great idea is useless without clear steps, accountability, and resources to bring it to life. McKinsey notes that execution is the most cited reason for strategic failure.

  2. Overwhelming Complexity: Trying to tackle too much at once can overwhelm teams, leading to burnout and disengagement.

  3. Unrealistic Expectations: Many organizations set goals that ignore their current capacity, market conditions, or operational challenges.

  4. Change Fatigue: Frequent or poorly managed changes lead to resistance, disengagement, and confusion.

How to Plan Goals That Stick

As you plan your organizational goals for the year, take a page from personal goal-setting science:

  • Start by assessing your current capacity and environment. Are you positioned to grow aggressively, or should you focus on stabilizing foundational systems first?

  • Break your goals into quarterly or monthly milestones. This not only helps with execution but also makes progress more visible.

  • Communicate the "why" behind each goal to foster buy-in and motivation among yourself or your organization.

  • Regularly review progress and adjust as needed. Flexibility is essential when conditions change.

As you enter the new year, resist the urge to let ambition cloud practicality. Success isn’t about chasing every opportunity or setting unattainable goals; it’s about strategic focus, realistic planning, and disciplined execution. By starting small and building incrementally, your organization (and you as an individual!) can avoid becoming another statistic in the 70-90% failure rate—and instead, make meaningful, lasting progress.

We can help. Please reach out to discuss your goals for the year—whether that’s personal or organizational goals. We’ll give you a free consultation, providing you a follow-up assessment that uncovers barriers you might not be seeing. No strings attached.

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