A cartoon man with dark hair, wearing a white shirt and black pants, holds a large power cord with a monster-like plug. The man has a cheerful expression and a striped green and yellow tie. On either side of him are two large trees shaped like a pink brain and a red heart, respectively, with white rays emanating from them.

THINKING – Sprint 10

How to spot and create shared objectives

The reason for this sprint

This sprint focuses on the shared objectives that are at the core of all relationships. It is important that you can identify and dissect any relationship into its separate shared objectives.

We will go into more depth with plenty of examples to help you get more comfortable about identifying shared objectives. It also important that you realize how powerful relationships are composed of combinations of cooperating, competing and retreating shared objectives.

To illustrate this we will go into detail about the various shared objectives Derek had with his COO at iSuppli.

Sprint exercises

This third section dives deeper into shared objectives. We do this in our article “How to spot and create shared objectives”.

We then challenge you with some questions about shared objectives you can identify and those you can anticipate creating with your startup teammates.

Write down the following:

  • Write down with the help of a friend all the shared objectives and payoffs you can identify. There should be examples of cooperating, competing and retreating shared objectives.

  • See if you can identify one or more shared objectives that you can shift into a more productive type. How did you change the payoff to do so?

  • Describe a time when you created a lasting relationship with someone that was a stranger?

  • Have you ever helped two friends or colleagues make peace? What relationship building skills did you use?