Goals
Experiments and habits help improve how you operate.
Goals provide direction for where that improvement is meant to lead.
Without a clear sense of what you are working toward, it becomes easy to test ideas or build habits that create activity without meaningful progress.
Goals help ensure the changes you make support something important to you or your business.
Defining Meaningful Goals
Goals in the Apply stage are not meant to be rigid targets or pressure-filled milestones.
Instead, they serve as a way to clarify the direction you want to grow.
Goals might relate to:
• improving a specific business capability
• strengthening a personal leadership skill
• increasing efficiency in part of your workflow
• developing better decision-making habits
A useful goal provides enough clarity to guide your efforts without restricting how you experiment or learn along the way.
Connecting Experiments and Habits to Goals
Experiments allow you to test new ideas.
Habits reinforce practices that prove useful.
When these actions connect to a meaningful goal, they begin working together to produce lasting improvement.
Over time, you may find that:
• some experiments support your goals more than expected
• certain habits become essential to maintaining progress
• other ideas no longer feel relevant and can be set aside
This process helps ensure your efforts remain focused on what matters most.
Adjusting Direction Over Time
Goals are not permanent decisions.
As you learn through experimentation and reflection, your priorities may shift.
It is natural to refine goals as your understanding deepens.
What matters most is maintaining a clear sense of direction while allowing your methods to evolve.
Regular reflection helps ensure your experiments, habits, and goals remain aligned.
A simple weekly review provides an opportunity to notice progress, adjust direction, and maintain momentum.