It's one thing to set goals--and entirely another to get the people in your organization to actually accomplish them. To make the leap from vision to execution, you can't just define what needs doing; you also need to spell out the details of getting it
done. One motivational tool that enables this is "if-then planning,"
which helps people express and carry out their intentions. If-then plans
work because contingencies are built into our neurological wiring, says
social psychologist Halvorson. Humans are very good at encoding
information in "If X, then y" terms and using such connections to guide
their behavior, often unconsciously. When people decide exactly when,
where, and how they'll fulfill a goal, they create a link in their
brains between the situation or cue (If or when x happens) and the
behavior that should follow (then I will do y). This
creates powerful triggers for action. To date, most of the research on
if-then plans has focused on individuals, but new studies show that
they're very effective with groups, improving performance by sharpening
focus and prompting members to execute key activities in a timely
manner. If-then planning helps organizations avoid poorly expressed
goals, groupthink, the tendency to cling to lost causes, and other
problems. It pinpoints conditions for success,
increases everyone's sense of responsibility, and helps close the
troublesome gap between knowing and doing.