How Do You Find Your BHAG?

“This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” President John F. Kennedy before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969 and safely returned to earth, with Astronaut Michael Collins, four days later.

The story of the Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or BHAG (pronounced BEE-hag), a term coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their 1994 book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, is well documented. Collins and Porras make the point that a true BHAG “is clear and compelling and serves as a unifying focal point of effort—often creating immense team spirit.

While the need for and importance of a BHAG is well-known, we frequently get asked by business leaders how you get to the BHAG in the first place. Some of the business leaders we’ve worked with report that they have difficulty articulating a BHAG. Or, they treat creating a BHAG as a one-and-done process and are then surprised when the BHAG flops with their leadership team or their staff, that it is neither compelling nor inspirational. 

Why do business leaders have difficulty creating a BHAG? Over the course of helping them find their organization’s BHAG, we’ve found three reasons. First, creating a BHAG can stir some uncomfortable emotions; usually, the bigger the BHAG, the more uncomfortable people find themselves. Second, many business leaders attempt to create a BHAG on their own, without input or feedback from others.  This secretiveness can handicap the process. Finally, business leaders often don’t answer for themselves whya particular BHAG is meaningful for them and, as a result, have difficulty explaining its relevance to the organization. Let’s look at each of these difficulties more closely and explain how to overcome them.

Go Big, and Then Bigger

Business leaders have a reputation for having outsized personalities, possibly as a result of the outsized personalities that the Steve Jobses and Elon Musks of the world have. One would think that it’s completely natural for such Type-A go-getters to come up with goals that are big, hairy, and audacious. In our experience, business leaders have diverse personalities and most have difficulty creating BHAGs that are big enough. Why? Creating a BHAG is like putting a big flag in the ground. It stakes a claim, in no uncertain terms, to something very significant and very public. 

Making that big of a claim is scary. What if you fail to reach your BHAG? Wouldn’t it be better to just dial-down the BHAG? To manage expectations? After all, you don’t want to look foolish. It’s all too common to “walk back” a BHAG in the face of fear, doubt, imposter syndrome, and other negative emotions. As we work with business leaders, we often have to encourage them to “go bigger” with their BHAG and to reach farther–to embrace the fear that comes up.  Most of the time, fear is the best indicator that you’re going in the right direction. In other words, if it’s big, hairy, and audacious, it shouldbe scary.

Co-create Your Way to a Better BHAG

Because the process of creating a BHAG is scary, business leaders often try to create one in isolation, reluctant to share a BHAG “before it’s done.” Fear and uncertainty contribute to a go-it-alone attitude, and as a result, they don’t seek collaboration, input, or feedback early enough in the creation process. Having others involved in the creation of the BHAG results in greater buy-in and ownership of it, so we encourage business owners to involve their leadership teams and, if possible, their entire staff in the creation of the BHAG. It is important to view the process as iterative.  In fact, the brainstorming, creating, and refining process are what we’ve seen result in the most epic and aspirational BHAG’s.

The Story is Why

Remember, a good BHAG does two things. First, it creates clarity. A BHAG is not a jumble of vague notions—it sets an inarguably clear goal that is immediately understandable to any who hear or read it. Second, a BHAG is compelling. It should inspire commitment and action. A BHAG does not, in and of itself, explain whythe goal should be pursued. Even if you confront your fear and go big with your BHAG, and even if you work in collaboration with your leadership team and your employees to create it, you will likely have to explain whyyour BHAG is important, and that requires a story, a narrative that both results in and supports your BHAG.

The circumstances of the space race with Russia in the late 50s and early 60s was all the narrative that President Kennedy needed to make his proclamation to Congress. The story was known by all Americans and didn’t need to be restated in order to create the BHAG of putting a man of the moon in ten years’ time. But not all stories are as self-evident. We recently worked with the CEO of an engineering firm in the gas and oil industry for whom designing safe oil rigs, and accessories for oil field drillers, was the BHAG for his company. Even though his employees were involved in co-creating the BHAG, they were having difficulty grasping why safety was so important. Then, the CEO shared his own story of being seriously injured during a rig inspection and how his struggle to recover from the injury took over a year. He had to learn to walk all over again!  His story enabled his employees to connect with their BHAG easily, and it came to inspire them. What is the story is behind your BHAG? Why is it important to you, to the leadership team, and to your people? Identifying the whywill help build buy-in and will enable everyone to feelthe significance of the BHAG.

Overcoming our fears to make a BHAG that is truly big, co-creating with others, and making it come to life with an authentic narrative that imbues it with relevance, that communicates its why, all are important to making a BHAG that propels the organization forward to greatness.  

Creating a BHAG isn’t easy, and we recognize that it doesn’t come naturally to everyone.  We’d be honored to work with you to support your process in order to create a clear, compelling BHAG for your company to rally around. Give us a call. We’d love to get to know you and help your company reach for the moon.