Setting clear and defined objectives is a central and essential task to mobilize our projects throughout the year and they give us a concrete idea of how we are progressing.
Defining the challenges in the most concrete and limited way and including them in our agenda is the key to reaching the end of the year fulfilling the dreams that we encouraged at the beginning of the year.
"Living day by day letting yourself be carried away by the present moment" sounds very attractive… but "planning" works much better. Not planning can make the difference between success and failure.
Think no more! Starts now! We tell you how to set goals efficiently to have more chances of success.
Step 1. Think freely.
Before starting with the definitions, it is important to reflect on what you want to achieve, analyze options and use personal creativity to approach the vision of the future that will drive the objectives. We must be clear about where we want to go and evaluate the possibilities of how to do it.
Step 2. What are our limits?
The reality that surrounds us such as competition, human resources, money, among other factors, limits the possibilities of the imagination. Context constraints need to be clearly identified to help us focus on possible goals. It is useless to set goals that are very difficult or impossible to achieve.
Step 3. What do we want to achieve?
From the future options we must select the ones that we are going to pursue. It is essential to keep in mind that when focusing on a particular objective it is often impossible to fulfill others to the same extent, which is known as objective sub-optimization. Let's clearly and firmly define our goals for the year.
Step 4. Define attributes to measure and how we will measure them
It is a key point to ensure certain characteristics so that the decision about the future can materialize. An objective must be: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and with a clear deadline. Writing it completely will allow us to assess that all these characteristics have been taken into account.
Step 5. What are our acceptance thresholds?
What will be the minimum for us to consider our objective accomplished? What will be the acceptable percentage of completion? Establishing the reasonable margin within which the goals will be considered fulfilled is very important because it reduces uncertainty and limits the demands and fears prior to the achievement.
