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WEBINAR
3 Proven Methods to Optimize Your
2018 Strategy and Goals through
Culture and Employee Engagement

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Meet the Speakers
Tanya Bakalov, Founder & CEO, BetterSkills, Inc.
Tanya Bakalov is the Founder and CEO of BetterSkills, Inc., a Boston based SaaS company that
provides a dynamic next generation solution for organizational visibility and employee
engagement. Prior to founding BetterSkills, Bakalov’s career included a variety of leadership roles
in business operations, go-to-market strategy, corporate development, organizational hiring, SaaS
and enterprise, and software solution selling. Tanya was named a Silver Stevie Award winner for
Female Executive of the Year in 2014, UDE Alumni Excellence Award winner for 2016 and the
prestigious E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner for 2016.
Tanya Bakalov
Speaker
Joe Krause
Moderator
Joe Krause, Director of Professional Services, AchieveIt
Joe is responsible for empowering AchieveIt clients to execute their plans. With a consultative
strategic planning background, Joe has worked with clients to execute over 1000 strategic,
operational, and project plans. Throughout his four year tenure at AchieveIt, Joe has
experienced, first-hand, the pitfalls organizations experience during the execution phase of their
strategic planning processes and is passionate about helping teams drive toward successful
business outcomes.

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Slides will be sent via email in 1-2 days
Recording link will be available on demand
There are dial-in only participants
Type in the Questions Panel
Share on Twitter @GoAchieveIt
A Couple of Housekeeping Notes

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WEBINAR
3 Proven Methods to Optimize Your
2018 Strategy and Goals through
Culture and Employee Engagement

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How to…
1. Ensure Your Goals Are Aligned to Strategy
2. Evaluate Your Team’s Skills
3. Motivate Employees Through Peer Recognition
3 Proven Methods You Will Learn Today

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BetterSkills Mission
We believe people who are seen, heard and valued
drive organizational success.

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Case Study:
How to Approach
Strategic Planning

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Case Study
Vision
(Mission)
Strategy
Plan
Compelling
Simple
A corporate “roadmap” to
achieve our vision
Long term statement identifying a
market position you intend to own
Functional & financial plans to achieve
the first phase(s) of our strategy
Crisp
Defines choices
Phased
Objectives
Key Results
Operational Alignment

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Critical Strengths
Resources or capabilities that the company has or has
developed
Examples:
Strong Customer Base
Global Sales Footprint
Culture
Critical Weaknesses
Resources or capabilities that the company lacks or does not have
enough of
Examples:
Product or services risks
Lack of Partner leverage
Critical Opportunities
Trends, forces, events and ideas that the company can
capitalize on (Not fixing weaknesses)
Examples:
Increase Value
Account Expansion
Move into mid-market
Critical Threats
External factors that can jeopardize the company
Examples:
New Entrants (start-ups)
SWOT Analysis

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Method #1:
Ensure Your Goals Are
Aligned to Strategy

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Setting Goals at employee level that support strategic plans
Use a methodology that your organization is comfortable with:
• MBOs (Management by Objectives), KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
• S (Specific) M (Measurable) A (Achievable) R (Realistic) T (Timely) Goals
• OKRs (Objectives and Key results)
• ’s research shows that “organizations that make it easy for
employees to set clear goals and have ongoing management of those goals were
four times more likely to score in the top 25 percent of business outcomes.”
Goal Setting

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What goal management methodology does your
organization currently use?
a) OKRs
b) MBOs
c) KPIs
d) SMART Goals
e) None of the above?

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• OKRs is a goal setting framework for employers and employees to discuss
how the work of an individual employee is connected to the overall
business strategy.
• Developed by Andy Groves at Intel and modernized by one of the legends
in the Silicon Valley, John Doerr from Kleiner Perkins.
• John Doerr introduced OKRs at Google and they have used them ever
since.
So, what are Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)?

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Transparency, Teamwork and Trust

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Example: Marathon
• Objective
– Run the 2018 Boston Marathon
• Key results
– Find a training coach/team
– Run 5 miles every day the first 3 weeks
– Run a half marathon by week 15 of training
– Run 21 miles two weeks before marathon
– Eat healthy consistently throughout training,
including appropriate carbs
OKR Example

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Successful Companies Managed by OKRs

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1. Create 3-5 clear, specific and measurable goals that can be answered
with Yes or No at the end of the time period
2. Set a time period for accomplishing the activity - daily, weekly, monthly
or quarterly. If it’s a project, break it down into parts that you can
accomplish within the time frame.
3. Depending on methodology, decide if you want the goal to be
aspirational or realistic.
4. Decide if goals will be transparent or private.
Employee-Friendly Goals

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What tools are you currently using to implement
your plans?
a) Spreadsheets
b) A specific goal-management platform
c) Nothing

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Managers Are Your Ambassadors
You have a strategy based on company goals, WHO is going to carry out this
strategy? - YOUR PEOPLE

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• Follow the Vision ------Strategy--------Plan--------Report
• Metrics driven (Goal Methodology that best fits your
culture)
• Clear owner assigned to each function and reporting
• Set staff meetings as well as employee 1:1
Build a Plan

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Method #2:
Evaluate Your
Teams’ Skills

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People Visibility
Without visibility,
strategy falls flat

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Does my team have the right skills?

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Method #3:
Motivate Employees
Through Peer Recognition

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Peer to Peer recognition fosters collaboration and engagement
69% of employees would work harder if they felt their efforts were better appreciated**
What Gallup found from a survey of 1.4 million employees
is that the top 25% most engaged teams experienced a
double-digit advantage in the following areas:
• 25% lower turnover (in high-turnover organizations)
• 65% lower turnover (in low-turnover organizations)
• 37% lower absenteeism
• 20% higher customer metrics
• 21% higher productivity
• 22% higher profitability
Engaging Your Team to Deliver Results

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4. Simple and do it often
1. Specific Recognition
5. Tie to mission/values
3. Share stories2. Peer to Peer
Five Best Practices of The “Thank You” System

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Benefit:
This creates a culture of “doing the
right thing.”
1. Recognize people based on specific results (OKRs)
or Problems SolvedHow to do it:
Give employees an award not just
for good overall work, but reward
them for completing a specific
action. For instance, congratulate an
employee if they showed exemplary
customer service when a particular
problem occurred.

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Benefit?
Employees surveyed claimed
they feel more satisfied when
recognized by peers compared
to leaders.
Peers better understand what
fellow employees are going
through, so their recognition is
more meaningful.
What are companies doing?
Use cloud-based platforms that
allow employees to gift each
other rewards points on a
public leaderboard so
everyone can see each other’s
accomplishments.
2. Peer to Peer Recognition – Not Top-Down

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Power of “story telling”
When someone does
something great and is
recognized by their peers, the
whole company is promoting
these better behaviors and
results.
This also helps boost company
moral as employees see other
employees working hard to
create growth for each other.
3. Share recognition stories!

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Most successful programs have
budget for each department to
give peers $ or points to give to
peers.
We give high fives.
4. Make recognition easy and frequent

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Benefit?
“Thank You” awards that are
aligned with a company’s core
values – such as outstanding
customer service, innovation and
teamwork – have the power to
reaffirm positive behavior that
organizations want its employees
to enact.
General bonuses do not reinforce
specific behaviors that companies
want its employees to focus on.
Who else is
doing it?
Deloitte and Intuit have
recognition programs which focus
on each company’s missions and
goals.
Both programs have proven to be
highly successful.
5. Tie recognition back to your company values and
goals

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Psychology of Recognition
Bersin’s research shows that 83% of
companies studied suffer from a
deficit in “recognition” and are
underperforming compared to the
companies embracing a culture of
“thank you.”
Studies show recognition has a
physiological impact on
performance.

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Reports and Insights

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How to…
1. Ensure Your Goals Are Aligned to Strategy
2. Evaluate Your Team’s Skills
3. Motivate Employees Through Peer Recognition
3 Takeaways from Today

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Check Us Out
See it in action:
www.betterskills.com

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Slides and Recording will be sent via email in 1-2 days
Share on Twitter @GoAchieveIt
Type in the Questions Panel
to participate in our Q&A
A Couple of Housekeeping Notes

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Solving the Challenges of
Strategy Execution

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Food for Thought
Less than 10% of strategies formulated are effectively
executed.
70% of the time the real problem isn’t bad strategy. It’s
bad execution.

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The Problem
People Plan
Process
Execution Takes All
Three

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What Drives Execution?
4
DRIVERS
OF
EXECUTION

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Visual Alignment
Qualitative Context
Big Picture Visibility
Streamlined Updates
Purpose-Built for Execution
Current Tools Don’t Enable Drivers

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PURPOSE-BUILT SOFTWARE
BEST-PRACTICE EXPERTISE
HANDS-ON GUIDANCE
Want to Know More?See it in action:
www.achieveit.com/demo

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Q&A with Tanya
Tanya Bakalov, Speaker
Founder & CEO
BetterSkills, Inc.
tanya.bakalov@betterskills.com
(857)-263-3936
Joe Krause, Moderator
Senior Strategy Consultant
AchieveIt
(800) 535-1559
jkrause@achieveit.com

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Upcoming Events & Resources
Webinar >> The Intersection of Strategy Activation and Plan Execution:
4 Keys to Change Management in 2018
Thursday, November 16th at 1 pm ET
REGISTER:
https://www.achieveit.com/resources/webinars/
Follow us on Twitter @goachieveIt