Define your Wildly Important Goal (WIG)

Choose the one goal where breakthrough results matter most — and focus there relentlessly.

Why it works

The WIG practice addresses goal diffusion: when everything is a priority, nothing is. Research on goal-setting theory shows that specific, challenging goals reliably outperform "do your best" goals and that people perform better with fewer simultaneous goals. Naming one WIG forces the trade-off that most planning processes avoid — it makes the goal hierarchy explicit rather than implicit.

How to do it

1. Write your WIG as: "Move X from Y to Z by [date]" — specific, measurable, and time-bound.
2. Test it: if you achieved this one goal in the next 90 days, would it matter enormously?
3. Ensure you have no more than 1–2 active WIGs; more than that is a whirlwind by another name.
4. Communicate it to the people whose behavior needs to support it.

Evidence

Goal-setting theory (Locke & Latham) is one of the most replicated findings in applied psychology: specific, challenging goals consistently outperform vague or easy ones. WIG is an application of this principle combined with explicit prioritization. (rct)

Goal-setting theory evidence is strongest for performance tasks; application to longer-horizon strategic goals is more complex, and very difficult WIGs can backfire if they’re perceived as unachievable.

Sources

• Locke & Latham (2002), "Building a practically useful theory of goal setting," American Psychologist

Common mistake

Defining the WIG as an activity ("hold more 1:1s") rather than an outcome ("move employee satisfaction score from 6.2 to 7.8 by Q4") — which makes progress impossible to measure.