TKS Workshops
For the first TKS day back from break, instead of having our usual sessions, we had a full day of workshops taught by all of the directors, where both Innovates and Activates could take part together. I attended 2 of the workshops, both of which focused on reflecting on the year before and how to start off 2026 for a strong year, which is something I’m really focusing on making sure I do.
Both workshops were essentially about goal setting, but what I liked was that they both shared different ways to go about goal setting, and I could find which worked best for me. In the first workshop, I learned about how to do goal setting using the “My Painted Picture” method. The company 1-800-GOT-JUNK? used this method in 2012 when they were setting their company goals for 2016. The format of this goal setting is supposed to be similar to storytelling, where you’re writing in detail what you want to achieve by whatever date, like a story, as if you’ve already achieved it. For 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, this is what their Painted Picture for 2016 looked like (remember, it was written in 2012 before they achieved any of it):
As you can see, from the way they formatted their Painted Picture, it’s almost like a script, set in stone for what is to come. If you read the beginning, all the stuff they wrote actually happened. They ended up going to the CEO dinner, bringing everyone from the company to attend, and read their Painted Picture of 2016. What was particularly interesting was that many of the predictions made in their Painted Picture turned out to be true, as this served as an incentive for everyone in the company. Everyone wanted to see this happen, so everyone put in the work for it. This Painted Picture was available and included everyone, so everyone in the company, no matter the department, felt like their work mattered and they could contribute to this vision. Something that Painted Pictures need to do in order to strike motivation is to make the reader feel emotion. If the reader feels something good or exciting when they read their Painted Picture, then they are going to want to do what they can to make it a reality.
When we began writing our Painted Pictures, we kept the storytelling aspect in mind. For this to work for us, we needed to ensure that our Painted Pictures conveyed something that could evoke an emotional response in ourselves, serving as motivation to make our Painted Picture a reality for 2026. When we finished writing them, the next step would be to print out our Painted Pictures and put them somewhere we see them every day, that way we are constantly reminded of what we are working for.
The next workshop explored goal setting differently, using a more structured format called OKRs. From our workbooks, this is how they defined OKRs:
O for Objective
An Objective is a clear, ambitious statement of what you want to achieve. This is the goal. It provides direction and inspiration, answering the question: “What does success look like?” for that part of your life.
Easy to understand
Time-bound
Motivational
KR for Key Result
A Key Result defines how you measure progress toward the Objective. It answers the question: “How will we know we’ve succeeded?”
Quantitative and measurable
Specific and outcome-focused
Used to track progress objectively
OKRs are used at companies to set structured goals. They have less ambiguity because of the OKR structure, which looks like this (this is an example of one of my OKRs)
Committed Objective: Begun establishing a proof of concept for ClotGuard by April 1st
Aspirational Objective: Established a proof of concept for ClotGuard and have moved onto next test by April 1st
Key Results:
Plan out protocol tests
Secure grant
Plan out lab logistics and create lab schedule
It’s different from a Painted Picture because this has more direct action items, while a Painted Picture details what kind of “person” you need to be to achieve your Painted Picture and tells a captivating story of the goals you want to achieve. We set our OKRs for April 1st, so the end of the first quarter of the year. I built my OKRs around ClotGuard and my phage project.
And that was it for the 2 workshops. I really enjoyed using my time during the workshop day to focus on setting up 2026 to be a year as strong as 2025, and better, of course. I’m happy to get back to the blog posts, too, now that the break is over. This month will be focused on AI in different industries, so it’ll be useful to explore that, and I can’t wait!
