Goal Setting...

After learning about the different styles of management through an innovatively styled game in the last class, this time around, the class began in a conventional manner, with people sitting firmly in their chairs. Today, we were given a clear cut agenda of what we were going to discuss:

Goal Setting

One of the basic fundamentals of setting goals was to follow the popularly known SMART principle.

Of course we all know what the acronym stands for, but Dr, Mandi encouraged us to interpret it in our different styles. To interpret an idea or a principle, apart from the conventional manner, is one of the most important characteristic a manager needs to have to be successful.

With this in mind, we began to define SMART in different manners as below:

S – Simple, Superb, Synchronized, Stunning

M – Marvelous, Mind Boggling, Mature, Macho, Magical

A – Abounding, Absolute, Accelerated, Accurate, Adventurous, Admirable

R – Real, Radical, Rational, Resourced, Resonant, Realistic

T – Tactical, Tangible, Tenacious, Thrilling

With so many varied ideas coming forth, discussions went on regarding how a particular point from above may lead to a better set goal.

Formally, the SMART way of goal setting may be expressed as follows:

S – Specific:

The first term stresses the need for a specific goal over and against a more general one. This means the goal is clear and unambiguous; without vagaries and platitudes. To make goals specific, they must tell a team exactly what is expected, why is it important, who’s involved, where is it going to happen and which attributes are important.

M – Measurable:

The second term stresses the need for concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of the goal. The thought behind this is that if a goal is not measurable, it is not possible to know whether a team is making progress toward successful completion. Measuring progress is supposed to help a team stay on track, reach its target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs it on to continued effort required to reach the ultimate goal.

A – Achievable:

The third term stresses the importance of goals that are realistic and attainable. While an attainable goal may stretch a team in order to achieve it, the goal is not extreme. That is, the goals are neither out of reach nor below standard performance, as these may be considered meaningless. When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. The theory states that an attainable goal may cause goal-setters to identify previously overlooked opportunities to bring themselves closer to the achievement of their goals.

R – Relevant:

The fourth term stresses the importance of choosing goals that matter. Only goals that are relevant to you would receive the necessary motivation to achieve them. Relevant goals (when met) drive a team, department, and organization forward. A goal that supports or is in alignment with other goals would be considered a relevant goal.

T – Time-bound:

The fifth term stresses the importance of grounding goals within a time frame, giving them a target date. A commitment to a deadline helps a team focus their efforts on completion of the goal on or before the due date. This part of the SMART goal criteria is intended to prevent goals from being overtaken by the day-to-day crises that invariably arise in an organization. A time-bound goal is intended to establish a sense of urgency.

Thereafter, we went on to apply this newly learned and discussed principle to our previous problem from the last class of Tower building.

“What target should we have taken for the height of the tower?”

On analysis, we had:

Height achieved: 25

Goal Set: 22

History: 17, 22

Potential: 25+ by general consensus

Should not the goal set be always higher than the potential that we have? Else the goals achieved will always exceed the goals set. The challenge for working may go down and lead to mediocrity all round.

We also discussed about the Pygmalion concept which is the phenomenon which states greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform.

The Pygmalion concept is a self-fulfilling prophecy i.e. a positive spiral, suggests that our potential to do something must always be expected to be greater and accordingly we should set our goals high.

Hence, the ideal relation between the goals set, achieved, history and potential (over a period of time) should be as below:

Thus, setting goals correctly could actually help us realize our actual potential and help individuals lead fuller lives and at the same time, help organizations realize achievements that were hitherto seemingly impossible.

Stay tuned for more such amazing concepts…