Today, let's focus on 30 key goals.

How can poor goal setting and follow up generate complexity? Imagine a rowing crew where every team member puts his oars in the water at different times, pulls in different directions, and the leader isn’t sure about the distance to be covered.  The same with organisations: without clear goals and follow up they flounder around instead of moving in a purposeful direction. Here are some examples:

• Setting vague, distant, or too many goals.  The first two happen when managers avoid making real demands and water down the goals by not having clear measurements or deadlines. The latter is linked with inability to prioritize: "This year, can you please concentrate on these 30 key goals?"
• Allowing deflections to preparations and studies. This is similar with seeking a perfect strategy sin discussed in our previous memo. So many goals never get set – and achieved – because managers require another set of data, organizational review and more analysis. 
• Being unclear about roles and responsibilities. A real churn for all organisations. Any ambiguity about who makes a decision, who is accountable for a process, who has veto power, and who needs to be informed cost hours, dollars, endless meetings, and tons of re-work and frustration.

Want to avoid this? Set clear, measurable and finite goals and always assign responsibilities. And call us if you need help. 

This blog is from our Friday noon memo #37. Interested in regular updates? Sign up here.

© Copyright by New Pace Consulting SA, 2010. All rights reserved.
This post is based on “Simply Effective” by Ron Ashkenas.