4 steps to shift from outputs to outcomes

Many organizations mistake busyness for progress. Without clear metrics to track and communicate business impact, project teams often focus on completing tasks without fully understanding how their work contributes to broader business goals. 

A CIO of a global company — let’s call him David — faced this exact issue. He took over project management from a project office struggling with late and over budget performance. But despite his efforts, nothing changed since the root problem was that his teams were focused on perfecting outputs, not driving business outcomes. Trained to prioritize the “golden triangle” of time, scope, and cost, they hadn’t learned to measure what truly mattered. As a result, their work was disconnected from the company’s strategic goals, and the projects failed to deliver real value. 

When executives default to tracking what’s easiest — outputs like task completion, money spent, and overall progress — they mistake these activities for real business value. David’s company was stuck in this cycle until he realized he had to hit the reset button, teaching his teams to think differently. 

The power of focusing on outcomes 

Shifting the focus to outcomes — business results aligned with strategic goals — was the key to unlocking value. David had to teach his teams to see the bigger picture of their business impact. By doing this, every project became a lever to achieve revenue growth, cost savings, and customer satisfaction, rather than just another task list. 

Simply being busy doesn’t mean a project is successful in delivering business value, yet many teams proudly wear busy badges, leaving executives wondering why results aren’t materializing. Busy doesn’t equal productive. In fact, busy gets in the way of being productive.  

What’s needed is a fundamental shift in mindset from outputs to driving outcomes, which  is the core of any successful transformation, aligning projects with strategic goals. 

For David, this shift required retraining his project teams to go from being order takers to what we refer to as Impact Drivers. And as an executive, you too have the unique ability to bridge the gap between strategy and execution, but it requires setting your people up for success in a new way. Here’s how you can begin to build a team of Impact Drivers in your organization. 

1. Embrace the mindset shift

Project managers are often hired for their certifications, sending the signal that their value lies in applying every tool they learned in that training to every project. They believe more is better. But perfecting outputs doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll achieve business goals. Teach them to start with the end in mind.What is the business result this project will achieve, and what does a successful outcome look like? Success in project management is about achieving outcomes that drive the organization forward. Ensure every project has a strong business case with measurable, outcome-based success criteria, keeping everyone laser-focused on hitting those targets with every decision, rather than just chasing outputs within the confines of the golden triangle. If it feels too hard to define these outcomes, is the project really worth doing? 

Because of the situation he was in, David, the CIO in the example above, introduced a few key metrics like revenue growth and customer satisfaction that were directly linked to the company’s goals. Once the teams shifted focus to them, they quickly understood what real success meant. 

2. Align projects with strategic objectives 

A common issue is project teams lose sight of how their work aligns with the company’s broader goals. When David took over, his teams were still disconnected from those strategic objectives, but by revisiting them and ensuring that every project directly supported those goals, the teams could finally see they were part of something much larger than just a list of tasks. 

Many business leaders think their teams are mind readers. They hold a town hall, send out a slide deck, and then expect everyone to get it. But months later, they’re surprised when the strategy starts slipping through their fingers.  

In David’s case, the town hall was the end of the discussion about what success looked like at the organizational level. His teams couldn’t translate long-term goals into their daily work, quickly forgot about it, and nothing changed. You must use every meeting, email, and conversation as an opportunity to connect the work people do with the outcomes that matter. 

To ensure everyone is aligned from the start, invest the time to walk your team through the strategy — often developed without their involvement. A slide deck or town hall isn’t enough to embed the ‘why’ behind your business goals into their day-to-day work.Even a software upgrade has a strategic purpose, like improving customer response times, which leads to growth. When people understand the purpose behind their work, it creates powerful momentum. They aren’t just upgrading software, they’re growing the business. 

3. Prioritize projects for maximum impact 

Even when projects are aligned with strategic objectives, they can still struggle if priorities aren’t clear. In David’s case, all projects were treated as top priority, depending on whom you asked. This left project resources making their own call as what to do first, creating chaos with nothing moving forward quickly. So David was left answering to his peers as to why nothing was progressing. Everyone was frustrated.  

No one gets anything done with a fraction of a critical resource task-switching all day. When everything is important, nothing is important, so prioritize. This is essential for the very survival of your business. 

4. Stay present and discuss outcomes everywhere

High-demand business leaders often make the mistake of moving on to the next objective as soon as they hand projects over to their teams, leaving those projects vulnerable. Without a leader actively keeping the team connected to the strategy, reinforcing the importance of their work, and being present to remove barriers and answer questions, progress stalls.

In David’s case, it took weeks for his project teams to get time on his calendar, and he didn’t realize this bottleneck was slowing the entire cadence of value delivery across the portfolio. Leaders can’t afford to disappear once the project kicks off — they need to stay engaged to ensure momentum and success. Once David recognized the issue, he made it a priority to stay more accessible, regularly checking in and removing obstacles. As a result, throughput and ROI across all projects significantly improved, and his teams were more motivated to drive results.

So, measure what matters, connect people’s work to the strategy, make priorities clear, and never stop talking about it. Take these steps and you’ll be amazed how quickly your team accelerates the delivery of your organization’s strategy.