The Tower Building Exercise

Tower Building Exercise

Goal Setting

What is it?

“The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.” - Jim Rohn.

Goal Setting forms an integral part of all the practices carried out in organisations in today's world. Goals represent in a quantitative/qualitative form the various expectations managers have of their subordinates. It's an effective tool for making progress within the organisation as well as helping the organisation itself to grow. Which is why managers at all levels in the industry are aware of the importance of effective goal setting to propel their organisation to the top and make the workplace a better place to live.

Here is a nice link on how goal setting happens.

Why do we need it?

Organisations need to flourish, need to grow. The sole means of doing so is the presence of employees who are happy and motivated enough to work. The onus is on the managers to ensure that the employees working under them remain motivated to the level to help the organisation to excel. A very important point to be highlighted here is that there are no good or bad employees - it is the managers who have the responsibility of driving their team and getting the best out of their employees(More on this here). Goal setting is a means to achieve that end.

How to do it?

Goal setting is often done following the SMART criteria whereby objectives are set keeping the following in mind:

1. S-Specific - Goals mentioned were clearly chalked out and the expectations properly set to us.
2. M-Measurable -  No form of ambiguity in terms of measurement exists in the goal being set. In our goal set, we would have clearly stated goals like "2 Certifications mandatory in Java/J2EE". This way, we knew exactly the level we had to reach.
3. A-Attainable - Goals were set keeping in mind the level of potential of each individual as well as the expectations of the organisation from the individuals. In our goal sheet, all goals were properly planned and only the attainable ones were then retained.
4. R-Relevant - This I believe is one of the most important components of goal setting. All our goals were chosen on things that matter. Those things which were beneficial to the organisation and to the team find place as my goal.
5. T-Timely - All goals set for me had a target date as they were put forth on a quarterly basis and targets had to be strictly met in that period. Established a proper sense of urgency and responsibility in me, depsite the day-to-day hurdles which existed.

What to do?

As elementary as it might sound here, the goal setting process is an elaborate process and something that has baffled managers for quite some time in an effort to get it right. With the mix of different company policies and a mix of employees from different strata and backgrounds, there is no single uniform flowchart that can be followed in an effort to set the right goals.

Positioning your Goal Set

Legend:
A - Attained/Past Performance

B - Achieved Performance

C - Goal Set

D - Potential

Aligning to the above diagram, in TCS, it was believed employees had enormous potential to excel and help the organisation to prosper. The goal set designing was done keeping this in mind always. Goals would be set by the management keeping in mind my past performance and the level till which I was expected to scale upto. So in the First Quarter(denoted by I above), I would be set a goal of "Resolve 10 tickets on a daily basis". This would be done keeping in mind that in the past I had solved only "6 tickets on a daily basis". The goal set would ideally have a pull effect and help to inspire me to achieve greater heights. Automatically, due to the challenge imposed in front of me, I would pull up my socks and try to attain the goal. Here is where the manager comes into play. He would effectively help me to attain the goal set and thus realise my potential. My new achieved performance would then settle at say "8 tickets on a daily basis". Effectively, the ambitious efforts of my manager had helped me to attain a higher level of performance! Going ahead, in the Second Quarter(denoted by II above), my goals were scaled up to "resolve 15 tickets on a daily basis" and thus again, it bore the same effect.

Thus what we observe here is how effectively, the manager has been able to utilise the potential of his employee and through successive iterations, scaled him up to be a better performer and a better contributor towards the success of the organisation. I had seen this personally in my work where it made me a better and effective employee over the days.

Tower Building - Lessons in Goal Setting

The tower building exercise was held in the class to demonstrate several management qualities and attributes, one being the importance of goal setting.  I will discuss not what the exercise is, but the learning we had out of it in its due course.

The goal setting in this case was to set the number of blocks that a person can put one over the other. Section A students estimated that 30 blocks could be put one over the other and they achieved 28. However the importance here is if the goals were set on the lines of the S.M.A.R.T. approach as discussed above and the lessons from it.

1. Specific - The goal set was well-defined and clear to all. 
2. Measurable - A quantifiable quantity was set as the goal.
3. Achievable - This is the most important part of the goal setting exercise. Since the historical performance was 27 blocks, the team had to set a higher goal to motivate and inspire themselves to perform better. A higher goal of say 30 blocks here would have pushed up the performance of the team as the expectations would have been clear and maybe in that case,  the team's performance would have also scaled up beyond 27 blocks, thus achieving excellence.
4. Relevant - Pertaining to the tower building exercise, the goal was absolutely relevant.
5. Timely - A specific time period was indeed set for them to achieve the goal.

A second part of the exercise illustrated another important trait of goal setting. The student was blindfolded and then the rest were asked to estimate the number of blocks he could arrange. The fact that he was blindfolded resulted in the class average of estimation going down, with only one student believing that he could exceed his previously achieved performance. A handful believed he could reach the same heights whereas majority back-folded on their previously decided number. In an organisation, for a healthy growth, it is important that we scale up on the previously achieved performance, no matter what the situation is. A good management always overcomes situations at hand and uses it for their own good. That is what was required here, that the budding managers set a higher goal for greater performance.

Interesting to note here is the Pygmalion Effect, often used as a tool to explain the principles of organisation and management. Following the same case here, management needed to put greater expectations and needed to invest enhanced confidence in their employees to achieve better performance. To inspire the student to reach beyond his previously achieved 17 blocks, the rest had to act as good managers and set a higher target. That is what will distinguish the best from the rest. And make excellent organisations grow and prosper even further.