Date: 1/29/2016

Title: GOALS AND ACCOUNTABILITY – Part 2

By Bryan Arzani

The second point about setting goals is important, also. Goals become the basis for analyzing and making improvements to your team. Again, without goals, you don’t know how you’re doing. You don’t have a reference point to act as your guide. It’s like being on a ship in choppy waters. The storm is raging around you, with the wind howling mercilessly. You feel panicked. You know you need to do something. Looking to your leader for guidance, you hear her say, “Get to the shore!”

But when you look for the reference point, nothing is there. The lighthouse isn’t projecting its light (maybe the keeper fell and hurt his head or maybe the generator isn’t working to manufacture electricity for the light). Without the reference point, you steer the ship aimlessly. Who knows if you’ll make it to shore…..your goal? Without that goal, you can’t judge your progress or make changes to your current method. You can’t even tell if you are getting close. You can’t tell if you need to move the rudder to the right or left. You can’t tell if you should bring down a sail or bring down three.

Deming said the best way to monitor goals was during the process, not at the outcome. If you wait for the outcome to be achieved, you may arrive there and see that you’ve failed. If you monitor goal progress during the process, you’ll give yourself time to make corrections before you hit the mark.

To learn more about how to practice this understanding, contact Results Group, LLC at www.ResultsGroupLLC.com or 515-330-2866.