Krista had a sheepish look on her face when I asked to see her list of goals for the next three months.
“I don’t really have a list,” she said. “I mean, I know what I am supposed to do. I keep it in my head.”
“Then how do you organize your list, if you don’t have it written down? How do you share your goals with other people? How do you change and update them? Most importantly, how do you make decisions about goals?”
“Well, when I started this job, my manager explained things to me. I had a job description and I signed off on it. Is that what you mean?”
“How long ago was that?” I asked.
“About two and half years ago,” she replied.
“Your customers have changed, your market has changed, technology has changed, regulations in your industry have changed, your team has changed. Do mean that your goals have NOT changed in two and half years?”
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You know, just this morning I found my list of 2009 business goals on my desktop, made just before the new year. It’s already been rendered irrelevant, so instead of tweaking it, I just trashed it. Thanks for inspiring me to get that back out! A written plan helps keep me on track and maybe doing so on a daily basis will help with time management, just like Krista!
It would make a good experiment for something like a sports team where each player in a position has certain personal goals to help their team win a game.
1 team has their goals written down and passed down from the coach and the other is just told them.
I do know that top soccer teams in europe have personal game plans handed to them (printed) each week several days before the game.
I was just discussing this with a Team Development client I am consulting. The idea of changing goals.
When goals are set they almost become self-limiting. As a individual or team progress so must the goals. Achievments and goals are to be continually re-examined. This is not a way to under-achieve on purpose. It is a system to analayze and reflect of what is going on around your team.
It alsways baffles me that leaders do not measure progress on goals. They just say them, or write them somewhere and never visit the goals again.
Hi, Mike,
Thanks for the comment. Yes, when goals become self-limiting, kind of defeats the purpose.