Lessons From The Project Management Profession – Goal Setting 2
Give Your Goals Visibility
In the first part of this series, I discussed the need to breakdown goals to daily tasks or mini milestones to ensure that we chip away at our big goals every day. That improves our chances of achieving our goals at the end of the year.
Today I intend to examine another practice from the project management profession that helps to ensure that project goals are achieved. You may have noticed this but may not be aware of the significance of the practice.
Most serious-minded project teams have the detailed plan printed and laid out on the wall of the conference or meeting rooms. Some high-profile projects teams create a ‘War Room’, the headquarters of the project task force. Among the key items you find in the war room is the display of the detailed project schedule on the wall. In some other cases, this is done in the project manager’s office. Typically, every key person in the project team should have the schedule, at least the part that involves him, on the wall of his office. It creates both visibility and serves as a reminder.
Many projects that fall behind do not realize the significance of a visible project plan. Consequently, they prepare the plan, but leave it in the system or in the project managers drawers or among the piles of documents on her desk. They only dust it up during the weekly or monthly progress review meetings.
Many of those who set goals make the same mistakes. Even yours truly.
While reviewing my performance for a previous year with my coach (Yes, good coaches also have coaches. It is their own way of expressing confidence in the coaching process.) I discovered that many of the items I listed to accomplish were not accomplished. It became clear during the review that one of the reasons for my dismal performance was because the plan was not visible. I did not print it out and put it where I could always see, on the wall of my study, or some other prominent place. My review partner could not even find her goals document!
Some of the purposes that a printed goal document serves include:
- Documenting. Research has shown that merely writing down the goals increases the odds of accomplishment. Damian Pros, in a 2015 article in the Elite Mail, reported a Harvard University study that showed that writing down one’s goals, all things being equal, increased the chances of achieving them ten times over those who did not write them down.
- Announces your goals to others. Posting your goals on the wall or displaying them announces your goals or intentions to those close to you. This is also supported by research as increasing the chances of the goals being accomplished. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, the CEO of Hogan Assessments, and Professor of Business Psychology at University College London, is quoted in a Harvard Business Review article as saying that making your goal public demonstrates your commitment to it and enables others to hold you accountable. Accountability as a factor in goal performance will be the subject of my next essay.
- Visibility – the subject of this essay – keeps the goals always in view. Printing and posting the goals on the wall is just one way of ensuring visibility. Other ways include using photo frames, Desktop backgrounds, etc. Steve Pavlina suggests some other methods including use of digital photo frames, adding goal pics to your sidebar widget, and choosing an inspiring desktop background, among others.
I have also used writing my key goals down every day to ensure that I keep my goals in front of my eyes or top of mind every day. This not only keeps the goals in front of you but serves as a daily reminder.
Moreover, writing my goals down daily ensures that I do not become a victim of the proverbial ‘tyranny of the urgent’ by ignoring my important long-term goals in pursuit of less important urgent issues.
Well, there you have it. Make sure that your goals are SMART or SMARTER. Write them down to improve your chances of achievement. Go beyond writing down your goals. Print them out and display them in prominent places around you. This will announce your commitment to those goals to those around you, thus enabling them to hold you accountable. Overall, it raises the odds that you will accomplish your goals a significant notch.
If you do not have goals to which you are committed this year, I would strongly suggest that you go here to begin
