Betterworks Goal Alignment for People Leaders Training Course

Course overview

People leaders are often asked to turn business priorities into clear team commitments, yet goals can remain disconnected from day-to-day work. Teams may inherit broad annual objectives without knowing what contribution is expected, managers may struggle to identify duplicated effort or conflicting priorities, and progress conversations can become status updates rather than decisions. This course addresses the practical leadership work of using Betterworks to create, align, review, and adjust goals across teams while maintaining accountability and employee ownership.

Participants learn to structure outcome-based objectives and measurable key results, build parent-child goal relationships, assign owners and contributors, and use Betterworks goal visibility to identify dependencies and alignment gaps. The course covers goal cycles, weighting and progress updates, confidence ratings, check-ins, feedback prompts, and manager dashboards. Participants practise translating strategic priorities into team and individual goals, conducting evidence-based goal reviews, and deciding when to revise, pause, or close goals.

Delivered over five instructor-led days, the course combines Betterworks demonstrations with guided configuration labs, leadership case studies, role-played check-ins, and peer review of goal structures. Participants work with a realistic business scenario and their own organisational context where appropriate. They leave with a manager-ready Goal Alignment Playbook: a documented goal hierarchy, quality criteria, review cadence, check-in agenda, escalation rules, and a 90-day implementation plan for their team.

The course is suited to new and experienced line managers, department heads, HR business partners, and performance-management leads responsible for making Betterworks a useful management system rather than a static goal repository. It is particularly valuable for organisations introducing OKRs, strengthening manager accountability, or preparing for a new goal-setting cycle.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Translate business priorities into outcome-based objectives and measurable key results
• Configure aligned parent, team, and individual goals in Betterworks Goals
• Define goal owners, contributors, dependencies, weighting, and due dates
• Apply a goal-quality rubric to identify vague, activity-based, and conflicting goals
• Use progress updates and confidence ratings to lead evidence-based goal reviews
• Facilitate Betterworks check-ins that surface barriers, decisions, and support needs
• Analyse goal alignment views to identify duplication, gaps, and cross-team dependencies
• Produce a 90-day Betterworks goal alignment implementation plan for a team

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Line Managers — who must connect individual work to departmental priorities and review progress consistently
• Department Heads — who need visibility of team commitments, dependencies, and delivery risks
• HR Business Partners — who support managers through goal-setting cycles and performance conversations
• People Operations Managers — who administer or improve Betterworks adoption and goal governance
• Programme and Portfolio Managers — who coordinate cross-functional outcomes that depend on aligned team goals
• Newly Appointed Leaders — who need a practical method for setting expectations and maintaining accountability

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic experience of managing people, assigning work, or supporting performance conversations. Familiarity with their organisation’s strategic priorities, planning cycle, and current goal-setting language is useful. Participants should be able to use a web-based business application and will benefit from access to a Betterworks training or sandbox environment, although the instructor can provide guided scenarios where access is unavailable. No prior Betterworks configuration experience, technical administration skills, HR qualification, or previous OKR training is required. Complete beginners should expect to learn the core Betterworks workflow before applying it to leadership decisions.

Training methodology

The instructor uses a live Betterworks environment to demonstrate each workflow before participants practise it in guided labs. Short leadership briefings establish the management rationale behind goal alignment, then case studies require groups to repair weak objectives, map dependencies, and resolve conflicting priorities. Participants conduct structured check-in role plays using progress and confidence data, receiving facilitator feedback on questions and decisions. Each day includes an applied workshop, culminating in an individual 90-day implementation plan reviewed against a practical goal-governance checklist.

Course outline

Day 1: Goal alignment foundations and Betterworks navigation

• Strategic alignment as a people-leader accountability
• Objectives and Key Results versus task-based goal statements
• Betterworks Goals workspace navigation and goal lifecycle
• Outcome statements, key results, milestones, and success measures
• Goal types, time horizons, and planning-cycle conventions
• Goal owners, contributors, visibility, and accountability boundaries
• Goal-quality rubric for clarity, relevance, measurability, and control

Workshop: Participants diagnose a set of poorly written goals and produce revised objectives with measurable key results in Betterworks.

Day 2: Building aligned goals and accountable ownership

• Parent-child goal relationships and alignment logic
• Creating departmental, team, and individual goal cascades
• Linking goals to organisational priorities in Betterworks
• Assigning owners, contributors, sponsors, and approvers
• Weighting goals and setting realistic target dates
• Managing shared outcomes without diffused accountability
• Dependency mapping across functions and delivery teams

Workshop: Using a business-growth case, participants build a three-level goal hierarchy and a dependency map for a cross-functional team.

Day 3: Managing progress, confidence, and changing priorities

• Progress-update methods and evidence requirements
• Confidence ratings as leading indicators of delivery risk
• Milestone tracking and interpretation of goal status
• Manager dashboards and team goal review views
• Identifying stalled, duplicated, and misaligned goals
• Decision rules for revising, pausing, extending, or closing goals
• Documenting goal-change rationale for governance and transparency

Workshop: Participants review a simulated Betterworks dashboard, identify risks and alignment gaps, and prepare a manager decision log.

Day 4: Check-ins, feedback, and performance conversations

• Betterworks Conversations for recurring manager check-ins
• Check-in agenda design using goals, progress, and confidence data
• Coaching questions that distinguish barriers from accountability issues
• Betterworks Feedback requests and timely recognition practices
• Connecting goal progress to development and support actions
• Escalating resource constraints and cross-team blockers
• Recording agreed actions, owners, and follow-up dates

Workshop: Participants conduct a role-played goal check-in, using Betterworks data to agree corrective actions and document follow-up commitments.

Day 5: Goal governance and team implementation

• Goal-setting cycle design and manager responsibilities
• Team-level standards for objective and key-result quality
• Review cadence, meeting roles, and escalation thresholds
• Adoption measures for Betterworks goal-management routines
• Data privacy and appropriate visibility of employee goals
• Communicating the purpose and expectations of aligned goals
• Ninety-day rollout planning and stakeholder engagement

Workshop: Participants produce and peer-review a 90-day Goal Alignment Playbook for their team, including governance cadence, communications, and adoption measures.

Tools & standards covered

Betterworks Goals, Betterworks Conversations, Betterworks Feedback, Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions