The Benefits of Using NCT for Goal Setting

NCT is a modern goal-setting framework that stands for Narratives, Commitments, and Tasks. The benefits of this approach can be summarized as follows:

The Narratives provide teams with clarity by focusing on the "why" behind the goal. They help to develop a shared language and tie individual and team efforts directly to the company’s larger vision and strategy by offering qualitative insights. They help align individual decision-making with broader objectives, unify direction, and foster collaboration toward reaching them.

A maximum of 3-5 Commitments streamlines focus and helps prioritize relevant milestones. They provide a clear, quantifiable, and measurable indication of progress. They’re designed to be achievable and provide the bridge between the breaking down of actionable Tasks while aligning with the overarching Narrative. 

Tasks provide a clear roadmap towards achieving Commitments. They focus on the immediate actions that contribute to attaining the larger goals. They are dynamic and flexible insofar that adaptation does not derail overall alignment with objectives.  They help define milestones and resources and avoid wasting time on unnecessary work. They have a designated owner and promote individual accountability. 

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Common Challenges of Goal-Setting 

The importance of setting goals to achieve objectives in business is well established; however, what can often fly under the radar are some of the pains that come with attempting to set effective goals.

Organizations often struggle with effective goal setting due to several reasons, including but not limited to; the setting of vague objectives that lack strategic alignment, excessive focus on outcomes over processes, inadequate measurement and tracking, unclear accountability, and setting goals in silos, thereby limiting cross-functional collaboration, and many more factors that ultimately lead to the overall process of goal setting and execution to become tedious, misaligned and unclear. 

The setting of effective goals directly correlates to both short and long-term success; leaders naturally want teams to be ambitious, but when teams have struggled to meet targets in the execution phase – instead of identifying and making the necessary changes to ineffective goals – leaders often find themselves repeating the same mistakes each quarter. 

What do we mean by ineffective goals, and how might a leader setting them play out in a hypothetical scenario? 

Picture this, if you will: you've gone through the long, arduous process of formulating your strategy and debating your metrics for the quarter; you’ve chosen your framework and laid out the goals and objectives as a foundation for your team; at first appearance, they look strong, a solid blueprint you believe for a metaphorical ‘brick house.’ 

Once the team begins the execution phase, lack of clarity and aligned direction brings obstacles to progress to the surface, and cracks begin to form in the building blocks; priorities shift toward negative and reactionary ‘damage control.’

The positive and ambitious foundation that inspired these goals in the first place crumbles away. The pressure starts to mount, but you hold a positive and ambitious outlook; after all, failure can be a driver of progress, right? So, you go back to the drawing board to reset goals for the new quarter and try to incorporate some previously failed objectives. The cycle repeats, and failure to meet objectives and projected targets further increases pressure. 

The failure often frustrates stakeholders and erodes the team spirit, affecting motivation and setting the stage for even more ambitious goals to recover lost progress. You now find yourself stuck in what Ravi Mehta –the mind behind the creation of NCT– calls ‘the vicious cycle of goal setting.’ Is there a way this could have been avoided? 

This article will explain what NCT is and how it works before highlighting the benefits of including NCT in your goal-setting approach so that such scenarios can indeed be avoided. 

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What is NCT?

NCT stands for Narratives, Commitments, and Tasks, the three elements of a modern goal-setting framework introduced by Ravi Mehta.

The NCT framework focuses on emphasizing the ‘why’ behind goals to provide context to their strategic importance as a ‘Narrative,’ and it provides clarity on ‘what’ must be achieved during the quarter as a ‘Commitment’ while specifying ‘how’ these commitments will be broken down into realistic, actionable ‘Tasks.’

This approach is designed to enhance motivation and predictability to foster greater alignment across teams by addressing common issues when framing and executing goals using alternative popular strategic goal-setting methods like SMART and OKRs.

NCT is designed to help harmonize and align the company’s overarching vision and mission with daily operations, ensuring that every team member's action contributes to the broader strategic objectives of your organization, giving them a greater sense of purpose and satisfaction in meaningful work. 

Finally, NCT is designed to be an agile process that facilitates continuity and iteration to encourage learning and adaptability. By implementing feedback and progress to evolve task execution, NCT fosters a dynamic environment that allows teams to react swiftly to changes and updated information. 

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How does NCT work?

To better understand how NCT works, we’ll unpack the three components that it introduces.

1. The Narrative

The Narrative should be a 1-3 sentence qualitative description of a team's goal and, importantly, ‘why’ achieving it matters. 

The purpose of the Narrative is to serve as a beacon that guides the team's actionable work back to the company's product and long-term strategy. When structured well, it should provide the strategic context and guardrails to allow individuals to align their decision-making with the overarching vision and mission. This can be achieved by detailing why an initiative is a priority, incorporating any recent learnings that are relevant, including past efforts or problems with similar initiatives where relevant, and highlighting how the initiative fits into the broader product vision. 

Example: “Over the past quarter, we have experienced multiple system outages that have impacted customer satisfaction and trust. To ensure our platform provides a reliable service, we need to improve system stability and reduce downtime. This will help us retain customers and enhance our reputation for reliability.”

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2. The Commitments

Commitments are 3-5 objectively measurable goals the team commits to achieving by the end of a quarter. 

Their purpose is to provide a tangible indication that progress is being made on the Narrative. A commitment should be framed to be objectively verifiable; that is to say, it should be a goal that a team can all agree on as a success or failure. They should be something the team can be confident is attainable, and they should be flexible enough to allow teams the autonomy to find their way to deliver results that move progress forward, such as launching deliverables, completing research, establishing processes, and moving metrics. 

Example (continued) : 

• Reduce system downtime by 50%.
• Achieve 99.9% system uptime.
• Implement automated monitoring for all critical services.

3. The Tasks 

Tasks are executable, actionable deliverables of work and progress that do not need to be listed exhaustively. They reflect the team's best estimates to achieve Commitments and are subject to change and evolution throughout the quarter so long as those changes do not derail the overall goal. 

Their purpose is to lay out the roadmap of work needed to meet Commitments and achieve the Narrative. Tasks should be where the majority of focus for any cycle should be spent since they provide meaningful action toward achieving a Commitment and, as such, should be well-defined and specific to avoid ambiguity in execution. They should have a designated owner responsible for completion to promote accountability within the team.  

Example (continued) : 

• Conduct a root cause analysis of the recent system outages.
• Develop and deploy patches for identified vulnerabilities.
• Set up automated monitoring tools for all critical services.
• Schedule and perform regular maintenance checks.
• Train the team on new monitoring tools and processes.

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The Benefits of Narratives in NCT 

So, we’ve unpacked what NCT is and how it works in practice.
Let’s move on to highlight the benefits that using NCT brings to your goal-setting process. 

1. Provide clarity

By focusing on the "why" behind the goal, the Narrative provides teams with clarity in understanding the importance of their work, fostering increased motivation and engagement. 

2. Develop a shared language 

Narratives help to develop a shared language that facilitates more meaningful progress check-ins at every level of the organization and builds toward a stronger company culture.  

3. Align team efforts with company strategy

Narratives tie individual and team efforts directly to the company’s larger vision and strategy by providing qualitative insight into the goal. This ensures that daily activities contribute to long-term business objectives and product direction.

4. Create context

The Narrative provides a broader context, helping team members make decisions aligned with the company's broader objectives. This reduces misdirection and keeps everyone focused on the right priorities.

5. Enhance cross-functional alignment 

The Narrative aids cross-functional alignment across different teams, unifying direction and fostering collaboration toward common objectives.

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The Benefits of Commitments in NCT 

1. Streamline focus

A maximum of 3-5 Commitments streamlines focus and helps prioritize what matters within a goal-setting cycle.

2. Measurable progress

Commitments provide clear, quantifiable, measurable, objectively verifiable goals, indicating progress toward achieving the overarching narrative.

3. Remain ambitious yet achievable

Commitments are designed to be ambitious but achievable from the offset, which builds confidence and reduces the risk of damage to morale, burnout, and frustration.

4. Adapt based on development

Commitments allow teams to focus on relevant milestones, adapting based on the current stage of development per quarter. 

5. Bridge the gap

Commitments provide the bridge between the breaking down of actionable Tasks, shifting their focus to outcomes while aligning with the overarching Narrative, and ensuring that efforts directly contribute to attaining strategic goals. 

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The Benefits of Tasks in NCT 

1. Create clear to-do’s

Tasks provide a clear, executable roadmap for achieving Commitments, giving teams a practical, step-by-step approach to moving forward without ambiguity.

2. Take immediate actions toward progress

By breaking down Commitments into specific, actionable Tasks, the team can focus on the immediate actions that contribute to attaining larger goals, ensuring continuous progress.

3. Be flexible

Tasks can evolve throughout the quarter as teams learn and adapt, allowing flexibility while keeping the focus on the end goal. This helps teams pivot when necessary without derailing overall progress.

4. Avoid wasting time

Well-crafted Tasks help define what milestones and resources will be necessary to arrive at a destination and help avoid wasting time on unnecessary work to focus on what drives meaningful progress.

5. Set clear ownership

Tasks are assigned to a designated owner, which promotes accountability and allows team members to own their part meaningfully when attaining the broader goal.

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Conclusion 

Now that you're familiar with the benefits of NCT, we’ll revisit the hypothetical scenario at the beginning of this article but with an understanding of how NCT works and can benefit the goal-setting process.  

You’ve diligently engaged in the process of formulating your strategy and created a Narrative to ensure your team understands the critical ‘why’ behind the goals for the quarter.

You’ve engaged and included your team's insights into setting realistically achievable Commitments that provide all the measurable milestones; the team knows what is expected by the quarter's end, and everyone is aligned with what needs to be accomplished and how they’re going to get there. 

As you enter the execution phase, the Tasks serving as a clear roadmap help guide the team to stay on track and focused; as the quarter progresses, regular check-ins can still reveal a few challenges; only rather than causing panic, confusion, and disarray, they can be sufficiently addressed,  or adjusted to realign and have the team back on track working towards their Commitments thanks to selecting an agile and flexible goal-setting framework. 

Instead of crumbling under pressure, the team feels motivated that their work is meaningfully contributing to the broader goals and that any obstacles are part of a positive learning process.

‍At the end of the quarter, your team meets their Commitments and attains their goals. The sense of accomplishment reinforces a healthy and collaborative spirit, and the team is ready to build on these successes in the next cycle, confident in themselves, their leader, and the organization's direction.  

Visit our complete guide to the NCT Framework for a more practical explanation of how to implement it into your strategy.