Setting Team Goals

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hello, I'm Ray sheen.
• 00:05 The next team process that I would like to discuss is the process
• 00:09 of setting team goals.
• 00:12 There are dozens of different techniques, principles and approaches for
• 00:15 going about setting team goals.
• 00:17 I would like to discuss one that has been developed by Dr.
• 00:20 Edwin Locke and is based upon over 30 years of actual research.
• 00:24 I like this approach because it not only has the credibility from the research,
• 00:28 it's straightforward and easy to follow.
• 00:30 I found that this works well with teams that I've been on.
• 00:33 First, Dr. Locke advocates setting clear goals.
• 00:37 A great way for understanding what that means is to use the SMART acronym which
• 00:42 I'll discuss on the next slide.
• 00:44 Next is challenging goals.
• 00:46 The goals need to be aggressive enough to create a challenge.
• 00:49 Not so aggressive as to be seen as impossible, but a challenge is
• 00:53 motivating and can help to create an emotional attachment to the goals.
• 00:58 Third is commitment, the team should be involved in the development of the goals,
• 01:02 so that they feel that the goals reflect something important to them.
• 01:06 We are much more committed if it was at least partially our idea.
• 01:10 Fourth is feedback, teams need to get periodic status reports on how
• 01:14 they are doing on their goal for them to stay bought in and committed.
• 01:18 So when developing goals,
• 01:20 ensure they're ones in which there's some way of tracking progress.
• 01:23 And the last is task complexity, this is a balancing act.
• 01:28 The goal needs to be complex enough to provide a challenge, but
• 01:32 not too complex to confuse and frustrate.
• 01:34 In my experience, too many teams err on the side of overly simple goals that
• 01:39 are too basic and therefore never engaged the team.
• 01:43 Let's take a look at the SMART acronym.
• 01:45 There are several variations on this acronym, but
• 01:48 I found that this one works well with project team goals.
• 01:52 S is for specific.
• 01:53 The goal needs to be clear, concise description of expectations and
• 01:58 the objectives.
• 01:59 Avoid vague terms like empower employees or satisfy customers.
• 02:04 Be specific so team members understand what they're striving to do.
• 02:09 M is measurable.
• 02:11 This goes hand in hand with specific.
• 02:13 Clarify what metric you will be using to show progress towards achieving the goal,
• 02:18 and once your target value is for that metric.
• 02:22 You may need to run a baseline study first,
• 02:24 just to know what you are doing today with respect to the metric.
• 02:28 A stands for achievable,
• 02:30 the team needs to feel that the target is within their grasp.
• 02:33 Setting a target that is unattainable does not motivate the team.
• 02:37 Rather, they often feel like they're being set up to fail.
• 02:41 Make sure you include the time dimension and
• 02:43 resources when considering whether the goal is achievable.
• 02:47 Can this team accomplish this goal with the time and
• 02:50 money that is available to them?
• 02:54 R stands for relevant.
• 02:56 Do the team members understand why this goal is important to them in
• 02:59 the organization?
• 03:01 Help them see how achieving this goal advances the greater good.
• 03:05 If they feel the goal is irrelevant, they feel manipulated for
• 03:09 some nefarious purpose.
• 03:11 Finally, the T stands for time bound, timely or time constraint.
• 03:16 A date or a milestone adds urgency and focus to the goal.
• 03:21 Again, make sure it's realistic.
• 03:24 Let me wrap up this section with a checklist that I use when working with
• 03:28 a team to set up a team goals.
• 03:30 There's no particular order to this checklist.
• 03:32 Rather, I use it to remind me of what we need to address.
• 03:36 Some of these we've already covered.
• 03:38 First thing on the checklist is to be sure that the team goals are aligned with
• 03:42 organizational goals.
• 03:43 That helps to maintain buy into the goals from both the team members and
• 03:47 outside stakeholders.
• 03:49 Next, I make sure that all the team members understand the goals.
• 03:53 This is usually easy to do with your original team when the goals are being
• 03:57 established.
• 03:59 I find the bigger challenge for this is spending time with new team members to
• 04:03 ensure that they also understand and are aligned with the goal.
• 04:07 Don't overlook the importance of this.
• 04:09 A new team member who is not aligned, can quickly derail a previously high
• 04:14 performing team, and require weeks or months to recover.
• 04:19 Nex, t is the SMART acronym which I covered on the previous slide.
• 04:23 Another item, accountability, is an interesting topic.
• 04:26 The whole team is accountable for all of the goals, but
• 04:29 often some goals fall within one team member's oversight.
• 04:33 You need to be clear with that individual and the rest of the team,
• 04:37 as to how much authority the team members have.
• 04:40 And how much accountability is to be shared across the entire team.
• 04:44 This is situationally dependent upon the individual, the organization, and
• 04:49 the goal.
• 04:50 Another one that we've already talked about some, is establishing a metric or
• 04:54 monitoring system for progress towards the goal.
• 04:57 This is part of S.M.A.R.T, but I find that often needs to create a specific system or
• 05:02 process to get the information in a timely manner,
• 05:05 format it for the team's goal and then distribute it.
• 05:09 The last few items will help to ensure that the goals are achievable.
• 05:12 One of these is to understand any internal or external dependencies.
• 05:17 These often have to be micro managed by someone on the team.
• 05:21 Another is to acknowledge the risks of the goal, and again,
• 05:25 have someone on the team take the lead to manage each risk.
• 05:28 Usually that's the project leader.
• 05:31 Finally, ensure that everyone stays committed to the goal.
• 05:34 It's not uncommon that for either personal or professional reasons,
• 05:39 someone who was once committed to the team goals has lost interest.
• 05:43 I saw this one time with a senior engineer on one of the teams I was managing.
• 05:47 When I sat down to talk with him about it,
• 05:49 he told me that his father had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer and
• 05:53 that he was worried about how to take care of both his father and his mother.
• 05:58 As we talked through, we decided to change his role on the team to more of
• 06:02 an advisor role rather than a major actor.
• 06:05 With this I kept him engaged and committed to the team while allowing more time for
• 06:10 the very important personal issues that he had to deal with over the next few months.
• 06:15 A team without goals is like a rudderless ship that gets carried away by every
• 06:20 wind and wave until eventually capsizes or runs to ground.
• 06:24 Set your goals and steer your team with these.

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