Business Meetings and Blue Jeans

Last week my senior leadership team gathered at our office in Bentonville to spend time together, connect across teams, discuss progress on our business strategy, and update our Objectives and Key Results. I have always been goal-oriented and list-driven, so these work sessions leave me equally proud of what we have done and energized for what is to come. 

Earlier this year, Walmart Claims Services underwent a significant re-imagining of the way we operate. We established three Centers of Expertise, aligned leaders and teams, elevated and expanded roles, and acquired new talent. Translating a plan from a nicely laid out PowerPoint deck to a living, breathing, and moving business strategy is no small feat and has required the collective energy and support of countless associates, leaders, and stakeholders. Asking teams to work and lead with ambiguity while seeking their trust and commitment is serious work. And, while the dust is still settling and we are just starting to see some of the early benefits, taking the time to review our goals was a moment that reinforced even during tremendous change, our key objectives, day-to-day work, and business still moves forward – often at breakneck speed.

The appreciation and pride I have for all our WCS team – every role, every level – and our trusted partners and stakeholders is difficult to quantify. With a team the size of ours, it can be challenging to let each person know how valued they are in helping propel our ship forward. Setting aside time to hear from our leaders as they shared what they and and their teams are engaged in across all the businesses highlighted again just what a great team we have. In a word, it is humbling.

As customary for me, a minor comment during the day-long work session sparked a thought that I have been ruminating on for the past week. At one point, we were discussing a metric that we established at the beginning of the year. It is becoming apparent this metric will be extremely difficult and is likely to be a missed goal. As hard as it is to have the occasional “miss,” we all acknowledged that this goal was a BAG – Big, Audacious Goal. We wanted to push ourselves to see how close we could get – knowing we might not make it but - testing ourselves to see how far we could lift our own benchmark. 

As we were talking, I joked that we all have our personal Big Audacious Goals - in my case an old pair of jeans that hang in my closet. I like to call them my personal “stretch goals.”

1. These jeans represent my benchmark. They are my Best in 5 Years – I haven’t fit into them in about five years, but I have proven it is possible.
2. These jeans represent tradeoffs. They are an attainable goal, so long as I am willing to put in the work and give up some of the things I really like, namely carbs.
3. These jeans are SMART. They are Specific (jeans of a certain size), Measurable (I will or will not fit into them), Attainable (I have worn them before), Relevant (they’ll never go out of style), and (if I choose) Time-bound.
4. These jeans are Audacious. I’ve carried these jeans with me on two moves and closet purges – yet I cannot seem to throw them out. They are the big audacious goal I hope to tackle in the future. They represent what I was once capable of and could do again – if I put in the work.
5. And last, these jeans have been appropriately prioritized. They are meaningful but not a high priority. While I would love to wear those old jeans, they are not where I need to exert my energy right now. I’ve deprioritized them, placed them in the future goal parking lot, and know I’ll come back to them every so often to decide whether they are relevant enough to move to the top of my personal goal list or finally pitch them in the donation box.

My first exposure to the concept of a BAG was years ago while working on a Y2K system project. Our project manager set what I considered unrealistic deadlines. Over and over, we missed them, and it felt like a defeat each time. What I later realized was these goals were set intentionally difficult – they were big, hard, audacious stretch goals that we would probably miss. But in the end, we ultimately landed the project on time and on budget. The audacious goals pushed us beyond neutral, outside our comfort zone, and into the unknown zone.

While we could debate the advantages or disadvantages of knowingly setting unattainable audacious goals, I’m in the Nike camp - Just Do It. Shoot for the moon. Yes, it is hard to miss on a goal – no one wants to fail – certainly not me. But it’s important to set a few outrageous, might-not-reach-them goals. Because sometimes the wind hits our back, we push ourselves forward, and we achieve a new previously unattainable mark.

We will keep setting Big Audacious Goals at WCS - and I look forward to betting on and celebrating each and every one we smash through.