Teaching your team and peers
They already suspect that finishing things isn't the same as helping anyone. What stops them is that their goals were handed down, and rewriting them feels like either insubordination or homework.
Start here: what they’re under
Peers don't need persuading that output goals are hollow — they've lived it. They need permission and a first move small enough to survive a normal week. Anything that looks like a training programme will lose to their inbox.
An opener that doesn’t start a fight
“Want to spend twenty minutes turning one of our goals into something we'd actually be proud to hit?”
The conversation
In order, and none of it requires a slide. Each move teaches by doing something to a real goal rather than explaining a principle.
Run it, don't teach it
Book an hour, bring three real goals from your own area, and rewrite them together. Nobody has ever learned outcomes from a definition — they learn them from watching a goal they recognise get better.
Write the bad version first, out loud
Put the output-shaped goal on the board and ask: could we finish every word of this and nothing be better for anyone? The laugh in the room is the lesson. Use your own goal for this, never theirs.
Let the check be the bad guy
Paste a draft into the Outcome Coach and read the gaps together. It is far easier to argue with a score than with a colleague, and it takes you out of the role of the person who marks other people's work.
Send them away with one artefact
One canvas, or one skill they can point their own AI at. Education that needs you in the room doesn't spread — and the goal is that the next outcome gets written without you.
What you’ll hear back
Every one of these is reasonable from where they sit. Answer the fear underneath, not the sentence.
“Our goals are set for us.”
- What’s underneath it
- They think this needs permission they don't have.
- Something you could say
- “Then leave the goal alone and write the outcome underneath it. You're not renegotiating the commitment, you're saying what it's for.”
“We don't have the data.”
- What’s underneath it
- They believe a measure without a number is a failed exercise.
- Something you could say
- “Write “we don't measure this yet” as the baseline. That's a finding, not a blocker — and it's usually the most useful line on the page.”
“Isn't this just OKRs? OKRs didn't work here.”
- What’s underneath it
- They survived a rollout that became a form.
- Something you could say
- “Most rollouts failed because they became a form. Try it on one goal you already care about and see whether the conversation is better. Skip the template until it earns its place.”
“I don't have time for this.”
- What’s underneath it
- Correct, for anything shaped like a course.
- Something you could say
- “Twenty minutes, one goal, the one you're least sure about. If it isn't clearer at the end, we stop.”
What to leave behind
There's nothing to send. Put the rewritten goal where the work already happens — the board, the wiki page, the top of the stand-up — so the new shape is the one people see every day.
How you’ll know it landed
- Someone brings you a goal you didn't ask about.
- “What's the baseline?” starts being asked by someone else.
- The first outcome you had nothing to do with shows up.
Note that “they agreed” isn’t on the list. Agreement in the room is cheap; the test is what happens to the next goal written without you.
Rehearse it first
Paste this into Claude or any assistant — ideally alongside one of our coaching skills. It coaches you on the angle, then role-plays my team and peers so you can practise before it counts. Bring a draft through the coach first and it will be included here.
I want to help someone else write better outcomes. I'm not asking you to fix my own goal right now — this is about the conversation. Who I'm talking to: my peers and team — people at roughly my level who mostly agree with me in principle but have goals handed down to them and very little spare time. What I want from the conversation: to run a short, practical session on one or two of our real goals so that at least one person writes their next outcome without me in the room. Coach me, then rehearse with me: 1. Ask me what this person is actually measured on, and what they'd lose if my version won. 2. Help me find the version of the outcome that makes their job easier, not harder. 3. Then role-play them — sceptical but reasonable, not a cartoon — and let me practise. Push back the way they really would. 4. Afterwards, tell me which of my sentences would have landed and which would have started a fight. Use the bettergoals.ai outcome principles as the standard: start with customer and problem; outcomes over outputs; treat the outcome as a hypothesis; measure movement and impact with a baseline, target and timeframe; connect it to strategy and value; and write it so anyone can understand it. Ask one question at a time. Don't invent facts, baselines or quotes about my organisation — if you need something, ask. No names or personal details: refer to everyone by their role. I want to leave with sentences I would actually say out loud, not a script that sounds like a consultant.
When a chat isn’t enough: one hour, one goal
The same agenda works for a team, a leadership group or a PMO. It is deliberately not a course — there is no theory section, and everything that gets rewritten is real work. Running it? The goal-jam-facilitator skill will help you plan it, and the Outcome Canvas is the one handout you need.
0–10 · Why we're here
One goal from your own area that you know is output-shaped, and the honest story of what it cost. You go first, and you use your own work as the cautionary tale.
10–20 · The one question
“Could we finish all of this and nothing be better for anyone?” Run it over two or three real goals from the room. Don't define anything yet.
20–40 · Rewrite one goal, together
Pick the goal with the most energy behind it. Fill in who it's for, what changes for them, the baseline, the target and the date. Leave the gaps visible rather than guessing numbers.
40–50 · Check it, out loud
Run the draft through the Outcome Coach and read the gaps together. Argue with the score — that argument is the session.
50–60 · One commitment each
Everyone names one goal they'll rewrite this week and who they'll show it to. No template rollout, no follow-up deck.
Five ways this goes wrong
- Sending the principles as pre-reading. Nobody reads homework about goals; bring a goal instead.
- Correcting somebody's goal in public. The point is to make outcomes feel safe, and a corrected goal in a group chat teaches the opposite lesson.
- Leading with the vocabulary. “Outputs versus outcomes” is our shorthand, not theirs — describe the change you want and let them name it.
- Bringing a scorecard to a colleague. The check exists so you don't have to be the marker.
- Trying to convert everyone. One boss and one peer who write real outcomes will out-teach any campaign.