You already know that setting goals at work is essential for organizational impact and strong results. Goals help you prioritize tasks, stay focused, and measure progress. But what happens when something happens—either externally in the world or within your organization—that wreaks havoc and creates instability? How do you stay focused on your goals when everything feels uncertain?
Manage Uncertainty with Clear Goals
Goal-setting doesn’t have to add to the overwhelm of an already uncertain and chaotic situation. Strong goals can help you translate a vision into action, stay agile, and keep your team aligned around a clear purpose.
Here are five tips for setting goals in unpredictable times.
1. Find the North Star
When there’s a lot going on, it can be easy to get lost in the galaxy—but find your North Star first. What’s your team’s purpose?
If everything is equally important, then nothing is important. When things feel unstable or fast-changing, you might be tempted to tackle everything at once. But effective goal-setting in chaos begins with making (sometimes hard) choices. Focus on the 3–5 priorities that will drive the most impact. That clarity protects your team’s energy and helps you respond with intention, not urgency.
Ask yourself:
- What are the top priorities we need to accomplish? What’s essential right now?
- How do these goals align with our mission and values?
- What key results will indicate success?
Tips for effective prioritization
- Use the Pareto Principle: Focus on the 20% of your efforts that drive 80% of your results.
- Consider “gold star” vs. “good enough”: Where can good enough be good enough, and what needs to be excellent? (More on this below!)
- Try to see the future: Imagine it’s the end of the year and you were wildly successful. What’s the big headline—the thing you’re celebrating most?
- Think in scenarios: Which goals are adaptable no matter what the year brings?
- Zoom out, then zoom in: Picture your ideal year-end reflection—what story do you want to be able to tell?
2. Seek perspective and surface assumptions
Tap into your team’s collective wisdom. Reflect on this question: What can we assume to be true about the following year? (Or whatever time period you’re setting goals for.) Invite your team members to share their ideas. If you’ve already done scenario planning, you can pull assumptions from your scenario plans. Here are some things that might be on that list:
- We want to prioritize serving the most marginalized people in our community—that’s X and Y.
- The legislature will have a regular session during X period and might have a special session during Y period.
- Our funding levels will remain roughly the same, with a potential 10% increase.
- We’ll have two vacancies on our operations team.
- There will be a critical election in X city so we’ll focus our field efforts there.
This exercise will smooth the path to goal-setting, like applying primer before painting. Establishing and aligning on a few knowns will help identify what is realistic (the “R” of SMARTIE!) while bringing in more perspectives.
3. Leave space in the suitcase
The lighter your load, the more nimble you can be. Approach goal-setting as if you’re packing for a trip. If you’re bringing so much stuff that only a Tetris master can get your suitcase to close, you’ll have no room for souvenirs or emergency supplies, and you’ll end up jettisoning some items anyway. Setting too many goals can overwhelm your team. Prioritize just a few goals and create clear action steps for accountability.
Instead of planning for every possibility, focus on what’s actionable and aligned with your core mission. Fewer, sharper goals improve clarity and allow space to adapt.
Ask yourself: if everything were to change tomorrow, which 3 goals would still matter? Use your answer to guide what stays on your list and what can wait.
4. Let good enough be good enough
You’ll be more agile if you give yourself permission to let good enough be good enough. First, don’t spend months perfecting your goals. Instead, give it your best shot, build in time to revisit them, and tweak as needed. Second, depending on your context and capacity, what felt realistic this year might feel incredibly ambitious next year. Acknowledge the places where success is just getting the thing done.
5. Celebrate wins
Achieving goals—big or small—deserves recognition. Celebrating progress boosts morale and reinforces positive behaviors that drive long-term success. Acknowledging team achievements through shoutouts, small rewards, or simple words of appreciation can create a culture of motivation and engagement. When everything feels chaotic and uncertain, a little bit of celebration goes a long way.
Get Support with Goal-Setting
Goal-setting doesn’t have to add to the chaos; it can help you move through it. When there’s immense change and uncertainty, setting goals can help you get clear on what’s most important and transform your intentions into concrete plans and action.
Learn more about setting strategic goals by enrolling in our Manage to Ambitious Outcomes training package! Gain the confidence, strategies, and hands-on experience you need to sharpen your goals, chart the course, and make effective decisions today.
The Management Center is a 501c3 organization that helps leaders working for social change build equitable, sustainable, and results-driven organizations via trainings coaching, and online resources and tools.