Session 2: Goal Setting

The second lesson was on goal setting. A perfect example of goal setting process is the annual performance management system for appraisal of employees.  At the start of each year, employees is expected to pen down the major performance areas (MPA) against each of which there is an expected midyear and final percentage that is to be achieved. These MPA’s are the goals that employee needs to accomplish. The characteristics of such goals can be summarized in the following acronym.

S.M.A.R.T

We learned the exact meanings of each of them through the “Tower Challenge”.

First, the entire class was asked to take part. After a round of bidding, three of us got the chance to play this game. There were several small blocks. And all that was needed was to stack up these blocks to create the largest tower.  But it is not as easy as you think; it has to be played with certain conditions. The person building the tower should be blindfolded and also he should use his left hand. We were asked to quote the number blocks in the tower.

A few of us quoted less than 15, while the majority quoted it to be between 15 and 20. Finally we agreed upon 18.

Now the task is set and it is time bounded since it has to be completed before the end of the session.

Our objective was well defined specific and measurable i.e. try to create a tower of blocks that would contain 18 blocks.  

Next, as the goals are set, the three lucky ones were given different responsibilities to carry out the task at hand. One was to build the tower blindfolded and with his left hand. One of should instruct the blindfolded about the moves as well as motivate him using his interpersonal skills. The third one has to make sure that the entire process was carried out skillfully and effectively. This actually represented the three sets of people in a company.

1.  The Working Executive

2.  The Middle Manager

3.  The Top Management.

The following are a few pics at different stages of work.

 1. Beginning stages

  2. Completed tower

3. Our Team with Dr. Mandi

And our team finally made a tower 18 blocks, thus breaking all the previous records and successfully achieving the mission initially set. But it was not a cake walk as you may think.  The session was really useful in understanding through practical sense the goalsetting process and the effect of all parameters on the vision and mission statement.

While carrying out this task we also learnt about the two theories of management, namely Theory X and Theory Y. Here, in this task the manager overseeing the entire task could have handled the situation in two ways:

     1. In Theory X, management believes that the working executive is not performing well  enough up to their expectations. Therefore the management tries to motivate the working executive to perform more.

     2. Whereas in Theory Y, management believes that working executive is performing well and no further motivation is necessary for completing the mission.

In the above scenario, the Top management  believed that the person building the tower is performing well and therefore is Theory Y form of management.