Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals

Big, Hairy, Audacious goal (BHAG). 

Simply put, a BHAG is a goal that you didn’t think you could achieve, but once you do it makes a huge difference in your life.

In 2005, when the Senior Leadership team was meeting to set our own BHAGs, we set a goal to serve 25,000 children each year. When I asked the team what we would do if and when we hit that goal, both Warren Moore (Exec VP & COO) and Michael Dribbon (VP Business Dev & Chief Research Officer) simultaneously confirmed, “You set new goals.”

We have people throughout our hospital who have set personal BHAGs to focus on their weight, their family, and where they hope to be professionally and personally by a certain point in their life. 

Some of them are very close to achieving their goals and have asked me about what happens next? So much of their lives have been consumed with their determination to achieve their goal or goals that they are now worried about what happens once they succeed. 

One of the craziest times of my life was right before I got married. I was working in Washington, DC, my then fiancé and I were building a house together (mostly ourselves), and we were planning a wedding. Crazy, right? 

The house was a kit home, so all of the pieces were delivered by truck and then we had 9 months to put the entire thing together. Aside from digging the foundation and installing the electric and plumbing we built the home all ourselves, with help from friends and family. Yes, we built the entire house piece by piece.

I remember I would drive back from DC after work on Friday night and we would work all weekend on the house, only to drive back to DC on Sunday night. There was many a time I was so tired, I couldn’t recall making that trip back on the highway.

Did I mention that my first car was a 1976 Dodge Spirit? It ate a ton of oil and gas, in that order. In the snowstorms, I used to pray, “Just get me to April when we are getting married.” 

All the drama around home inspections, construction permits, and more – we lived through it. Then when we were married I had to find a job, so the next list of prayers began. After the job prayers were answered I started praying for a raise, then to let the Governor win the election, and so on. You get the point.

More and more prayers, and more and more goals. 

One of our Service Excellence Standards focuses on improving performance: I am committed to my purpose and strive to grow and improve my personal, departmental, and organizational performance. Achieving that  BHAG simply means that you have freed yourself up to tackling something else, setting a new BHAG! 

You changed, either personally or professionally, and you have an opportunity to focus on the next thing, regardless of what it may be. What matters is celebrating that you worked really hard, and accomplished something important to you, and now it is time to figure out what is next.

Are you currently working on a BHAG? Or have you completed a BHAG and have set a new one for yourself? Maybe you’re looking for help to figure out where to go now? Please share below!