#343 Goals Made Simple
2026-03-16
Iwo Hryniewicz, Aneta Wiechecka-Kozieł
Workshop: “Goals Made Simple”
Ford Pinto engineers got a goal: car under 2,000 lbs and $2,000. Goal achieved. People died. Wells Fargo set a goal: 8 accounts per customer. Employees hit it — by opening 3.5 million fake accounts. The goals worked perfectly. That was the problem. What’s this workshop about? Goals are the most powerful motivational tool we have. Over 1,000 studies confirm it. But Harvard researchers also discovered something disturbing: goals have five side effects no one warns you about. In this workshop you’ll learn:
- Why goals work (4 psychological mechanisms)
- When they go wild (5 side effects + real case studies)
- How to build a safety system that keeps goals in check
- What will you build?
Everyone leaves with a completed Goal Charter for a real goal — not a template, but a filled-in document:
- Main target + NICE leading indicators (complementary to SMART ones)
- Counter-metrics (so the goal doesn’t devour everything else)
- Kill criteria (when to stop before it’s too late)
- Commander’s Intent (so your goal survives first contact with reality)
How will we work?
This is a Training from the Back of the Room workshop — activity first, theory later. over 50% of time in hands-on exercises: pair work, case study analysis, peer review. Maximum 8 minutes of sitting still.
Who is it for?
Product Owners/Managers, Scrum Masters, Team Leads, developers, Agile Coaches — anyone who’s ever set a goal that “worked” a little too well… or perhaps not at all.
I’ve worn many hats over 10 years in IT—product management, engineering management, Scrum Master (PSM3, PSPO3). Solving complex problems together is what excites me. I’m a self-proclaimed technohumanist: technology is powerful, but it’s the humans wielding it who make the magic—or the mess. I’m passionate about sharing knowledge through mentoring and running workshops. Not the “let me tell you what I know” kind, but the “what are you wrestling with right now?” kind. I design learning experiences that are activity-first, brain-based, and story-driven—helping people discover insights through practice rather than lectures. I’m fascinated by how teams navigate uncertainty, build better systems around their work, and discover what actually matters versus what just keeps them busy.
Over 10 years in IT, I’ve learned that successful tool adoption isn’t about the tools. It’s about people, context, and whether anyone actually wants to use what you’re implementing. For the past 5+ years as a Scrum Master and Agile Coach, I’ve worked across pharma, logistics, and energy sectors—helping teams cut through the noise to figure out what matters. I help teams and their POs have honest conversations about what’s actually achievable. The magic happens when you combine data, people who trust each other, and an atmosphere where it’s safe to say “this isn’t working.”
Nagrania brak