63. Guiding STAR Matrix

Key Definitions

An objective is something you wish to realize – an aim you want to achieve. If you don’t have objectives, any future direction will do, and you will drift around. Or as the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland put it: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road can take you there”.

So, to have a sense of direction and avoid ad hoc wandering, it is essential to have clear objectives. The more these objectives are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-bound – the more intentional and directed the efforts can be of the person, team or organization that sets them.

Conceptual Model

The Guiding STAR Matrix gives an overview of the four groups of objectives that are always needed in every situation to set a well-considered future direction, whether it is for an individual, group or entire organization. Often, people will only think about what needs to be strengthened moving forward, but the Guiding STAR Matrix indicates that after the S, objective-setters should follow the other letters of the STAR abbreviation to create a complete picture of what to aim for. Only with all four categories filled will a brightly shining star emerge to guide people in taking the best possible steps into the future.

Key Elements

The four categories of objectives that should always be determined are the following:

1. When thinking about the future, it is natural that the first topic that comes to mind is what needs to be improved. People will quickly zoom in on what is going wrong or working poorly, and therefore needs to be fixed. Besides these weaknesses that require upgrading, people can also focus on further developing current strengths. But whether it is correcting faults or building on existing qualities, the common denominator is that a change for the better (future/+) is foreseen, requiring the individual, team, or organization to adapt their behaviors, learn new skills and/or embrace different values and beliefs.
2. In the drive to set ambitious improvement objectives, it is often forgotten how important it is to identify which current qualities are still valuable and need to be preserved. This is particularly difficult as familiar characteristics are typically seen as normal and therefore taken for granted. Hence, the second step in determining objectives is to clearly define which current capabilities, relational networks, cultural norms, sense of community and leadership behaviors are highly beneficial (current/+) and need to be safeguarded. They need to be explicitly recognized and objectives set to protect them.
3. Avoid. After thinking about what to improve and what to preserve, the third step in objective setting is to consider which potential risks are lurking in future that need to be mitigated. These risks include intentional negative reactions by other stakeholders, but also vulnerabilities to changing circumstances and the threat of making mistakes (future/-). Once these risks have been identified by considering “what if…?”, people can try to find ways to avert the risk from materializing by taking preventative action and/or look for possibilities to minimize the impact when things do go wrong.
4. Reduce. Once the future improvements and risk mitigation have been determined, a good way to wrap things up is to explicitly determine which current qualities, behaviors and/or investments shouldn’t be preserved, but should be eliminated – decreased or even stopped altogether (current/-). Some of this scaling down will be because the current way of working is ineffectual or even dysfunctional, but it could also simply be that there are insufficient resources available and priorities need to be determined, or that a clearer focus needs to be achieved.

Key Insights

• Objectives are needed for directed action. If you don’t know what you want to achieve, any behavior is fine, and you will wander about. But for intentional behavior, it is necessary to set objectives that can be aimed for and can be used to track progress.
• Objectives are needed at all levels. Organizations need to set objectives if they don’t want to drift about, but so do units, teams, and individuals. Everyone needs direction.
• Objectives need to indicate desired improvements. A key part of setting direction is to outline what needs to be strengthened. By specifying that there is a gap between the current situation (A) and the desired future situation (B), it can be made clear what needs to be corrected and/or developed. These change aims are called improvement objectives.
• Objectives come in four different types. Only specifying what needs to be strengthened can give a narrow and unbalanced view of what needs to be achieved. Besides setting improvement objectives, it is important to simultaneously determine what to treasure (preservation objectives), what to avoid (mitigation objectives) and what to reduce (elimination objectives). All four together give a complete picture of what to strive for.
• Objectives should be set by following the STAR acronym. To create a consistent and balanced set of objectives, it works best to go through the four different types in the order of the STAR acronym – start with what needs to be Strengthened, then what should be Treasured, Avoided and Reduced. Be aware that people usually find it easiest to determine what needs to be strengthened but tend to struggle when thinking the others through.