Day 3: Identify Gaps and Goals

This is 2024 Data Team Planning week. Read Day 1 and Day 2.

Planning is creating the future.

On day 1 and day 2, you spent time looking back on the last year, and looking at the current mission and vision of the business. Today, is your opportunity to leverage the work you did the last two days in two key areas:

• Identify Gaps

• Establish Goals

Identify Gaps

Look at what you uncovered on Day 1 about your team’s work from 2023 and compare it to the mission and outcomes you collected on Day 2. Where are their gaps? What is the mission articulating that hasn’t been reached yet? What activities, projects, and people from 2023 weren’t aligned with the mission and outcome? This might be uncomfortable. Leadership often is.

List at least 2-3 areas where there is a gap between your 2023 accomplishments and the mission and vision of the business.

Establish Goals

Goals are for closing the gaps. They are based in accurate and honest assessment of where you are at paired with a clear vision of where you are headed. Goals close the gap.

For each of the Gaps identified, craft a goal. Here’s a format to try In order to move from X (Current state) to Y (Mission/Vision) we will [describe the outcome that will close the gap between X and Y]

It’s often hard to identify gaps when you are on the inside. If you are struggling to articulate where you are at, where you are headed, and the gaps between the two, you are not alone. This is common situation to pull in outside perspective to gain insight into what’s happening. There are many ways to get outside perspective - one option you can explore right now my Assessment and Roadmap service.

That’s all for today. See you tomorrow.

I’m here,

Sawyer

from The Data Shop