Why are BHAGs important to everyone?
When an org. already has set goals, what's the need to set those BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)? Well! Setting them ought to be undoubtedly an imperative exercise & here's why...
“Don't be afraid to be ambitious about your goals. Hard work never stops. Neither should your dreams.”
– Dwayne Johnson
History of BHAGs
How often have we heard start-ups being set-up and how they crumble down quickly owing to a lack of clarity over the vision and just going with the flow and saying yes to / taking up anything that situations / life tosses at them?
“Over my stint as a startup advisor (although for a limited period) I’ve noticed how this is one of the most common reasons for good orgs. crumbling down. Also, not to mention how the vision itself could be so myopic spanning hardly a few quarters and then entirely thrown open to chance thereof.”
BHAG is a concept developed in the book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies a book written by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras. A BHAG (pronounced “Bee Hag,” short for "Big Hairy Audacious Goal") is considered a very powerful way to stimulate a mindset amongst all teams that is aimed towards continual progress.
A BHAG although outlandish as in “it may seem too big to be considered achievable or real given the current scheme of things” is yet clear and compelling. One may need very little explanation as most people may get it right away as it is so often straight and to the point.
The best use of BHAGs is when the focus is towards building for a really long term whilst also enabling teams to possess a relentless sense of urgency given the distance that they ought to cover over what could be a real long journey by building a thorough understanding of what ought to be done today, and in the near term of what could be the current quarter so as to firstly visualize and secondarily plan and eventually overcome those permutations and combinations of blockers and ultimately achieve them.
“A BHAG is a huge, long-term target or goal that energizes an organization and focuses its teams, people, rallying them to a common cause and leading them through a process of mental transformation.”
- James C Collins
To get a hang of this better, let’s look at examples of BHAGs from the real world:
Deciphering BHAGs
Take for instance, NASA’s lunar mission right there in the 1960s. They were talking of launching something on to the moon. Let’s just plot that over a VENN which also happens to be the sweet spot of innovation that every product person would so often swear by:
Not only this one instance, I dare you to pick any org’s BHAG and decipher them like I’ve done here. What you may realize over subjecting it to that triple intersection of the VENN could end up looking like a figment of someone’s wildest imagination, almost always.
If that’s the case, why frame them?
Why are those BHAGs even needed in the first place?
The Debate:
Given how product teams gun for more clarity with strategy definition & clearly spelling out the "why” & “what’s to be done right now" what place does BHAG even have over the product workflow?
Is it even needed?
That’s one place where most teams and orgs could go completely off-track.
There’s a whole lot of a difference between BHAGs and a mission statement.
(Refer to the illustration below)
The very expansion of the acronym, BHAG - BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS ought to tell you that they are not meant for right now & not even the nearest foreseeable future.
They are super-ambitious goals the org. sets representing a future time that’s so farthest from the present so as to be able to motivate, charge-up & empower every internal and external stakeholder over that ginormous extended mission that they have their eyes perched on when they also aim to send out a crystal-clear view of that visionary role to the markets & the users in parallel.
There could be no better way to keep the teams grounded and motivated when they know whatever they have achieved right now is just like a drop in the ocean given how they would intern map those to the BHAG.
When BHAGs may not really have anything to directly do with strategy / goals / OKRs / overarching into artefacts tied to the workflow of product teams, it could still be important to formulate and see that teams get a hang of them.
Advantages:
1. Overcomes myopic vision
As it is strongly believed an organization’s future is just as good as its vision, it is quite possible that at times the vision set could only be as good as a few quarters or maybe a few years given how that underpins alignment over what needs to be done right there & then. Post getting there, what would the organization do? BHAGs could help solve that very problem in cases wherever applicable.
2. Room for innovation
Given the wider horizon & all the internal teams getting a hang of the magnanimity of the BHAGs, there could be more room for planning, innovation over each of those individual silos as everyone in the org. now knows that their progress is just as much as a drop in the ocean and they have just managed to scratch the surface with each those deliverables / outputs.
3. Better planning & execution
Clarity over super-long term could mean more autonomy for some teams. They could get all the more room for planning stuff out meticulously and more breathing room for experimentation could eventually translate to better problem & solution discovery improving the chances of innovation.
4. Fosters creativity
Given how designers could have to work their way into curtailing ideas to match that deliverable / output over the current silo as they could be branded as too big and flashy owing to the fact that everybody is on a stringent deadline, the clarity over the BHAGs and the wider spectrum of idea coverage could mean more time for design teams to bring out their best in terms of creativity.
5. Pumps up team spirit
Thinking of short silos and sprints could put teams off the whole goal itself sometimes and some teams at some orgs. could be forced to adapt to working that way, which they wouldn’t want to if given a choice. BHAGs could change all of that and much more owing to how teams could scope the entire journey ahead and use that as effective motivation.
6. Contributes to employee retention
Given the clarity one obtains over the super-long-term horizon of BHAGs the underlying motivation for some team members could now convert towards taking that decision of staying in the organization for a much longer period when it could also prompt some great referrals as well helping build a solid team.
Testing your BHAGs
OK, you’ve set your BHAGs. But, how do you even know whether they happen to be apt and serve the very purpose of their existence?
Here are a few questions from the “Jim Collins Vision Framework” that could help you analyze:
Conclusion:
BHAGs aren’t a replacement / alternative for any of the Mission, Vision, Business Objectives, Goals. They are as the name suggests, really audacious representations of the goals that an org. sets for itself with the distant future in mind. Adding to the benefits of a goal over whatever term (short / mid / long) they help an org. stretch that vision beyond the current foreseeable timelines forcing them to get more clarity over the direction they ought to take.
Suggested reading:
Jim Collins - Concepts - BHAG