There’s a Dilbert cartoon I like where Pointy-Haired-Boss concludes a presentation on the company priorities for the year. One of his team asks whether it matters that none of his projects relate to any of those priorities, and Dilbert tells him he is overthinking again.

I often find that when people are trying to write their objectives they find it difficult because they can’t see how they fit in, or indeed why they should fit in with the company’s goals and objectives. I often use the analogy of a large jigsaw puzzle to explain: when you start doing a jigsaw you know what the end goal is because you have the picture on the cover of the box. You have all the pieces you need and when you get them all together in the right way you complete the jigsaw – you have achieved your goal. The organisation’s strategy is like the picture on the front of the jigsaw box and each employee’s objectives are like pieces of the jigsaw. If we all have the same pieces, or some of us have the wrong pieces we won’t be able to create the picture, or we’ll end up with the wrong picture.

It’s important that individual employees understand what the picture is in order to make sure they have the right puzzle pieces – not only does it ensure that they will contribute to making the jigsaw but they will do so with a lot more commitment and energy than if they just had pieces and didn’t know where they belonged.