To kick off XBE Horizon Live 2024, Sean Devine delivered a keynote on "Ambitious Goals", the theme of the event.

The presentation explores the importance of setting ambitious goals and introduces XBE’s Game Plans as an effective strategy for achieving and maintaining those objectives.

Watch the presentation on YouTube.

A transcript of the presentation is provided below.

Welcome and Introduction

Our next session is Sean Devine opening with a keynote this morning. We'll start with a guessing game about his costume, and he'll guide us on setting big, ambitious goals. Please welcome Sean to the stage.

Good afternoon. The lights are a bit brighter up here than I expected. First, I want to thank Grant and Kayla for doing a great job and to everyone in the crowd who stood up to be good sports. I thought the "Boast" idea was a lot of fun—they did a fantastic job.

Theme of Horizon Live 2024

The theme of Horizon 2024 is ambitious goals—setting ambitious goals. I'll be talking about this topic for 45 minutes. But first, you might be wondering why I'm dressed this way. There are two reasons.

First, when developing Game Plans, we considered historical figures who successfully led teams to set and achieve ambitious goals. We thought of Vince Lombardi. If it worked for him, it might work for us.

Second, we have some big announcements coming up. I figured if you want to become Superman by the end of the day, you better start as Clark Kent. That's the approach I'm taking as we kick off.

Acknowledgments

Leading XBE is one of the greatest privileges of my career. I thank you all for being customers, for taking the time to travel here, for being experts in what you do and in using our platform. You put your trust in us, and we strive to repay it with good work. I appreciate that—so thank you.

Our team at XBE has grown and now numbers in the mid-30s. I want to thank all of them for their hard work throughout the year to make the company and you successful, and for preparing for today's event, both directly and indirectly. We have about eight or nine team members here who put in the work beforehand and will be here throughout the event. I appreciate that.

We also have some big announcements that took an incredible amount of effort, which you'll learn more about soon. Thank you to the team that worked on that. Lastly, thanks to everyone else handling day-to-day operations as we gather here today. I especially want to thank Theresa—for her unwavering support from the beginning of XBE to today, and over the last three weeks when I focused solely on preparations for today, she was there picking up the slack. Thank you, Theresa.

Our business partners are also here. Trey Bowen, back on the left, has been a partner in XBE since 2019. Business has been immeasurably better because of that partnership. Thank you, Trey, and thank you to your cousin Matt for being with me on this journey. Also, thanks to Banneker Partners, who joined us this January. We have Harjot Sachdeva from Banneker here, and Joe Oberholzer will be here later. They've been great partners, and we appreciate their time with us.

Housekeeping Details

A few housekeeping details: Your experience with XBE all year is our priority, especially as it relates to Horizon Live. We've ensured that someone is keeping track of your good time and making sure that your experience is excellent throughout. If you need anything—related to the event or Kansas City—please ask.

Preview of the Day

Now, let me give you a preview of the day. We have a big agenda that has been sent out and reviewed by many of you, which may have influenced your decision to attend. Part of it included some placeholders, knowing we would swap them out with new content. So, the day will be full of expected and unexpected elements.

I've long heard that the secret to happiness is low expectations, but today, I'm going to do the opposite. I'm setting expectations as high as possible for both today and tomorrow. I believe everyone will walk away with a plan to improve now and a vision to sustain that improvement for the next decade, just as we have for the previous one. Maybe setting expectations that high is a bad decision, but I don't think so because I know what's coming.

Why We Don't Set Ambitious Goals

For the next 15 minutes, I want to discuss why we don't set ambitious goals. Think of this part of the day as the vegetables to the meal—it might not be everyone's favorite, but it's important. What I've observed is that we have an incredible number of possibilities within our organizations, yet the goals we set are far fewer. Over the last five years, many people have asked me what might go wrong with their implementation or what they might regret later. My answer is simple: you're not setting your sights high enough. My goal for the next half hour is to convince you to set more ambitious goals than you currently do. We've worked with 36 different contractors and seen that almost anything one of them can accomplish, and imagine if everyone had that collective ambition—it would be amazing.

So, why don't we set ambitious goals? Here are a few reasons based on my career and life experiences:

1. Uncertainty: Goals involve things that haven't happened yet, leading to uncertainty. This can be upsetting because failing to achieve a goal might have downsides. However, it's worth sailing into that uncertainty. Accomplishing 80% of ambitious goals is better than 100% of less ambitious ones. Embracing uncertainty is essential for setting ambitious goals.
2. Accountability: There are two types of people in organizations—those afraid of accountability and those who crave it. Seeking accountability doesn't come naturally to everyone, yet it's crucial for setting and achieving ambitious goals. We need to be held accountable by others and ourselves to keep the cycle going.
3. Complacency Due to Abundance: In industries like heavy construction, periods of high demand and profitability can lead to complacency. When things are going well, the ambition of goals may decrease. Setting ambitious goals during these times helps prepare for future uncertainties.
4. Anti-Fragility: We are inherently anti-fragile, meaning we benefit from stress and uncertainty. Setting ambitious goals creates stress that appeals to our anti-fragile nature, driving us to achieve more. The acceptance that we may struggle to achieve these goals or that they may reveal uncomfortable truths is another barrier, but we must look beyond that.

Strategies for Setting Ambitious Goals

Now, let's discuss strategies for setting actual ambitious goals:

1. Need to Improve: To set an ambitious goal, recognize that improvement is a necessity, not just a desire. The difference between want and need is a state of mind. First, identify circumstances that require improvement and believe that setting an ambitious goal is the only way to achieve it.
2. Create Necessity: As leaders, we can create necessity for our teams rather than waiting for external factors. This involves:

• Communicating Clearly: Ensure your team understands the context and importance of the ambitious goal.
• Breaking Down Goals: Divide the goal into smaller, manageable parts to avoid overwhelming your team.
• Tracking Progress: Monitor how you're doing against each part of the goal.
• Adjusting as Needed: Be flexible and adjust your plans as reality changes without losing momentum.

1. Plan to Win Seasons, Not Games: Aim for long-term success rather than short-term victories. After achieving a goal, have a plan to sustain that success to avoid falling back into old habits. Our goal should be to affect reality, not just reflect it.

Game Plans at XBE

At XBE, we've been obsessed for years with convincing everyone to set the most ambitious goals possible. Here's how we've approached it:

• Playbook of Proven Successes: We've compiled a playbook of 52 proven strategies extracted from our experience with you and others. These are ready-to-use plays within the XBE app, each backed by XBE features designed to control processes across distributed teams at scale.
• Game Plans Feature: Earlier this year, we released Game Plans, symbolized by Vince Lombardi’s icon. This feature is built around setting and achieving ambitious goals, following the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework.
• Training Team Members: We've trained a team to understand and apply both the software and the playbook, ensuring they can partner with you in achieving your goals.

Example Play: On-Time Job Starts

Many organizations struggle with starting jobs on time. Our playbook includes a play for on-time starts with five key wins:

1. Cost Awareness: Teach your organization the cost of idle crews. Increased cost awareness raises the importance of starting on time.
2. Process Clarity: Define clear communication processes for when to start construction.
3. Foreman Involvement: Engage foremen in driving the start times, as they are closest to the work.
4. Accountability: Hold the plant accountable for starting on time.
5. Visibility: Ensure crews start producing work as soon as materials arrive.

This is just one of over 50 high-value business goals that are solved through our playbook and XBE app.

Implementing Game Plans

Our organization uses your Game Plan trophies as our objectives. We track each objective to ensure we're supporting you effectively. Our team is fluent in the OKR process, enabling us to help you apply these strategies successfully.

One play in the playbook is for building your Game Plan. If you leave here wanting three to five big goals, you can use this play to methodically set the right goals, break them down, involve the right people, and communicate them effectively.

Inspiration from John Doerr

John Doerr, a venture capitalist, formalized the OKR process while working with Google. His work, published in the book "Measure What Matters," serves as the playbook for many high-innovation companies. In his TED talk, he introduces the idea that the secret to success is setting the right goals. I highly recommend watching it—it's so obviously true that it's almost anti-clever. The key takeaway is that the secret to achieving amazing things is deciding to do so by setting the right goals.

Challenge to the Audience

I challenge everyone in the room to leave the next two days with one ambitious goal that you're not sure you can achieve but would make a significant difference to your organization if you did. If every one of the 125 attendees leaves with such a goal, we'll be cooking with gas by Wednesday. That's our objective.

XBE's Commitment and Conclusion

I want to share something exciting: On July 11th, we set the most ambitious goal in XBE's history. As of September 16th, we will announce that we've achieved it. I'm excited to do that, and I hope it inspires all of you to set and achieve your ambitious goals.

Today's content will focus on the tactical execution of setting and managing ambitious goals, both through Game Plans and other process-related improvements in your businesses. With that, I'll conclude my keynote and invite Grant back to transition us to the next section. Thank you, everyone, for coming. I'm excited to spend the next two days with you.

Thank you for joining us at XBE Horizon Live 2024!