How To Engage Your Team in Setting Next Year’s Goals

If you set the goal without considering the team's input, there’s a good chance no one will truly be excited or ready to take responsibility for the result. Keep reading to see how you can involve the team in shaping the goals and motivate them to succeed.

Learn how to help colleagues move from the role of passive observers to active participants in the goal-setting process.

Why It’s Important To Discuss Company Goals

When employees take part in discussing goals, they feel part of a shared mission. That motivates them to aim higher and work harder. There are several more reasons to involve the team in planning the work year:

• Diversity of perspectives — different backgrounds and viewpoints let the team see a problem from multiple angles and come up with more effective solutions.
• Conflict prevention — joint discussion helps surface potential conflicts of interest and disagreements early.
• Stronger team spirit — working together on shared goals builds cohesion and trust.
• Ownership — when people actively help set goals, they take more responsibility for achieving them.
• Adaptability — discussing goals together helps the team respond quickly to external changes and adjust plans to new conditions.

8 Steps to Take Before Discussing Discuss Company Goals with the Team

Here's a step-by-step plan to complete before you gather the team.

Step 1. Prepare

Before you start the discussion, make sure you clearly understand what you as a leader want to achieve next year.

• Analyze the company’s current situation: what worked and what didn’t?
• Identify key directions for development next year.
• Draft preliminary goals using the SMART principle: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound.

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Step 2. Choose the Meeting Format

Decide which format will be most effective for your team: an in-person meeting, an online session, or a series of short sprints if there’s a lot to cover.

Step 3. Notify the Team

A week before the meeting, tell the team about the upcoming discussion. Include the date, time, and agenda. Let people know you expect active participation. You can also run an anonymous or open survey to understand employees’ mood and expectations for the coming year. These insights will help you find the right words — and the right motivators.

Step 4. Prepare Materials

Gather the data and tools that will help the discussion:

• reports on current performance
• market and competitor analysis
• results of employee surveys
• examples of successful cases from other companies
• tools for brainstorming.

Step 5. Open With a Welcome and a Motivational Framing

At the meeting itself, start with a greeting and a brief overview of where things stand. Set a positive, open tone and stress the importance of everyone’s participation. Share the goals for next year. Explain why they matter and how they connect to the company’s mission and vision.

Step 6. Run a Brainstorm

Choose a brainstorming method that will generate ideas and suggestions from the team. Here are five popular options.

Classic Brainstorming. The simplest, most familiar method — great for small teams.

Key principles:

• free expression of ideas — participants propose any ideas, and no one criticizes;
• record every suggestion — capture all ideas on a board or paper for later discussion and analysis;
• maximize idea volume — the more ideas, the higher the chance of finding truly strong solutions.

Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. This method lets you view the problem from different angles. Participants “wear” one of six hats:

• white — facts and information;
• red — emotions and intuition;
• black — criticism and risk assessment;
• yellow — optimism and opportunity;
• green — creativity and new ideas;
• blue — process organization and wrap-up.

The method structures the discussion and avoids one-sided evaluations.

Mind Mapping. A visual method for structuring thoughts and ideas. Participants draw a map with the central idea in the middle and branches for aspects and related ideas. It’s convenient for discussing complex, multi-layered goals.

Walt Disney Method. Built on three roles — dreamer, realist, and critic — well suited for long-term planning and ambitious goal setting:

• the dreamer generates bold, innovative ideas;
• the realist evaluates implementation possibilities;
• the critic analyzes risks and trouble spots.

Each role plays an essential part in goal discussions.

Reverse Brainstorming. This is the way to look at the problem from the opposite side. Instead of searching for solutions, participants list reasons why the goal might not be achieved. That reveals potential obstacles and helps design strategies to overcome them.

Step 7. Discuss Goals and Set Timelines

After the brainstorm, review the proposed ideas and agree on concrete goals for the coming year. Assign an owner for each goal and talk through the steps needed to achieve it. Set deadlines and interim checkpoints.

Step 8. Close on a Positive Note

Summarize the meeting and thank the team for the joint work. If you’re discussing goals at year’s end, a round of Secret Santa makes a great finish. It eases the atmosphere and lifts everyone’s spirits.

The main idea of Secret Santa is an anonymous gift exchange: each participant becomes a Santa and secretly prepares a surprise for another player. In the end, everyone gets a gift and a dose of holiday cheer. Draw names in advance and assign who gifts whom. On the goals-discussion day, ask everyone to bring their presents. Place them in one spot and, at the end, hand out the surprises.

Our MySanta service makes organizing fast and easy. The system assigns names so there’s no mix-up. No one forgets their recipient, because the assignment arrives by email.

The service also lets you chat anonymously with your Santa or recipient, build wishlists, and browse gifts from online retailers. You can manage the game flow, track gift status, set exclusions, and more.

Try our MySanta app

You can create wishlists, add exclusions, and communicate with your gifree secretly. Moreover, there is an option to track gifts and ensure that everyone buys a present on time.

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Conclusion

A collaborative goals discussion turns vague intentions into clear commitments your whole team believes in. Pair that ownership with a touch of holiday spirit, and you’ll enter the new year aligned, energized, and ready to execute.

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