Teams often set goals, but many are abandoned or fizzle out. What's the problem? The biggest issue is that goals are often stated in general terms without the necessary execution details. Even if team members know what needs to be done, they can't implement it.
To set practical goals for a team or entire organization, you need to not only define what should be done but also clearly explain the specific details of how to accomplish these tasks, because you can't assume everyone involved knows how to turn concepts into action. By using what motivation scientists call "if-then planning" to communicate and fulfill team intentions, you can significantly boost team execution.
The Secret of "If-Then" Planning to Break Team Procrastination
Humans are very good at processing information in the form of "if X, then Y" and subconsciously use this association to guide behavior. When people decide to achieve a goal at a specific time, place, and manner, they create an association in their minds: under certain circumstances or cues (if/when X happens), a behavior should follow (then I will do Y). "If-then" planning works because the human brain's neural circuits can handle contingencies.
In over 200 studies we conducted, people who implemented "if-then" plans were 300% more likely to achieve their goals than others. Recent research has revealed that "if-then" planning can clarify a team's focus and prompt team members to take key actions in a timely manner.
This is an important finding because a lot of time, money, creativity, and manpower within organizations are wasted on pursuing vague goals. This problem is quite common within organizations, and "if-then" planning helps members clarify the specific details of execution, thereby solving this issue. It captures the key to team success, increases each member's sense of responsibility, and helps them bridge the gap between knowing and doing.
Let's look at a simple example from work. Suppose your subordinates always delay submitting their weekly work reports. You can ask them to incorporate this into their plans to ensure you can better track progress. Although everyone is willing to do it, they are too busy and often forget to report. At this point, you can ask them to make an "if-then" plan: "(If) it's 2 PM on Friday, (then) I will email Susan a brief progress report."
In this way, the cue "2 PM on Friday" immediately becomes associated in their minds with the action "email Susan a progress report"—this cue is very salient. With this reminder, your subordinates begin to subconsciously look for the context in which the behavior occurs. Eventually, they will catch the critical moment (2 PM on Friday) and take immediate action, even if they are busy with other things at the time.
Once the "if" part of the plan is detected, the brain triggers the "then" part. People will execute the instruction without thinking. When the clock strikes 2 PM on Friday, employees' fingers will subconsciously move to the keyboard to write the email. Sometimes you are aware that you are following an "if-then" instruction. But this process doesn't need to be conscious, meaning you and your subordinates can complete the plan while continuing to advance other projects.
In our controlled experiments, this approach worked well: participants who used "if-then" plans delayed submitting their weekly reports by an average of only 1.5 hours; those who didn't use the plan delayed by an average of 8 hours.
Overcoming Organizational Ailments to Break Team Procrastination
"If-then" planning not only helps managers get better performance reports from subordinates, but it also helps organizations overcome some classic challenges in their operations and decision-making processes. New research finds that "if-then" planning can effectively address the following typical problems.
Trap 1: Groupthink
During decision-making, members often don't contribute their unique data and insights but instead stick to the information they initially had. Even when team members are explicitly told to share all relevant information and are given monetary rewards, few do so. During discussions, people often forget this big principle because they can't break deep-rooted habits, or because information overload causes cognitive paralysis, or simply because they get distracted.
Research by J. Lukas Thürmer, Frank Wieber, and Peter Gollwitzer at the University of Konstanz in Germany validated the role of "if-then" planning: it can optimize organizational decision-making by enhancing information sharing and cooperation within the organization. In this study, teams needed to overcome the "hidden profile" problem, where in collective decision-making, some information is shared, while other information is held by individuals. Therefore, team members need to share information to find the best solution.
Trap 2: Escalation of Commitment
Further research by Wieber, Thürmer, and Gollwitzer found that "if-then" planning also helps teams avoid another common problem: continuously pouring resources into projects that are doomed. Humans tend to chase sunk costs, investing time, energy, and money into things that yield nothing. This is irrational behavior. In such cases, the best approach is to make wise decisions about remaining resources. But people usually continue as usual, unwilling to admit their investment mistakes, which could have been put to better use.
If teams can adopt an external perspective of an independent observer, they can be more objective about wrong decisions and know when to stop or withdraw. In other words, by imagining that another team made the same early investments, people can focus on how to better handle the current situation rather than worrying about past expenses. Wieber, Thürmer, and Gollwitzer hypothesized that "if-then" planning could be a special tool to instill this way of thinking in teams. There are two reasons: first, research shows that "if-then" planning helps individuals adjust their strategies to achieve goals rather than sticking to methods that have proven ineffective; second, another study by Gollwitzer demonstrated that "if-then" planning can give people an external perspective (for example, imagining yourself as a doctor makes you less nauseous at the sight of blood).
When teams or organizations set goals, they often use broad, abstract language. By adopting the "if-then" format, it's easy to turn large, abstract goals into a series of practical small goals, and then clarify the specific actions needed based on these small goals.
For example, if you want to improve team communication, you might set "reduce information overload among team members" as one of the small goals. After brainstorming, you can achieve this small goal by requiring everyone to clearly explain the reason for forwarding an email. (The principle behind this requirement is: if people must explain the reason, they will be careful about which emails they forward.) For team members, the "if-then" plan would be: "If I forward an email, I will clearly state at the beginning of the email what it's about and why I'm sending it to you." One executive told me that this simple practice quickly ended the mindless forwarding behavior, and everyone's inbox was no longer cluttered with irrelevant information. At the same time, it improved the quality of emails that truly needed to be forwarded.
Specifying "who, when, and where" is an ongoing process, not a one-time exercise. Consider asking your team members to regularly review their "if-then" plans. Research shows that continuously refining "if-then" plans can double organizational efficiency and allow the organization to regularly assess whether its goals are realistic: Is anything always harder or more time-consuming than expected? Are there steps that lack clear planning? If the environment changes, your "if-then" plans need to be adjusted, otherwise they won't achieve the desired results.
Although research on the effects of "if-then" planning on teams and organizations is still quite new, preliminary results are promising, and social psychologists are testing its many uses and benefits. (For example, I am currently studying whether "if-then" planning can shift a team's mindset from "doing well" to "doing better," thereby driving continuous organizational development.) The clear conclusion is that "if-then" planning helps teams break down their goals into more actionable paths, building a bridge between awareness and reality for team members. By fostering a sense of responsibility in each person and clarifying key steps in execution, it enables people to do more and better than they planned.
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