This is some more information on establishing goals and objectives that will be executable and achievable. The idea is to be in a better position next year than you are in now.
Goals can be ideas about a place you want to go that is not where you are at now. There is a lot of information out there on setting goals. The goals that I see being achieved in business are ones that have the employees interested and other people believing in, not just the owner. It is difficult to achieve company goals with just one person. If you want to take your company to a higher or different place quicker and easier, find a way to get your people involved and have them believe this is the right place to go.
First write down what your ideal company will look like. What should your company be doing for your customers? How should your company operate internally? How should your product or service look? What should your finances look like? Are you making an acceptable profit?
Then you need to identify where the gaps are between where your company is now and what you want your company to look like. Identify items that need a lot of work, items that are important to improve, items that need money and investment, items that require more people or time, items that may not be achievable or items that will take a lot of time to complete.
When this list is complete and you know which goals will need more work, then take the time to evaluate the resources you have to achieve your goals and objectives. Match your resources to the goals. You should be able to put these in categories such as ones that need money, ones that need people, ones that need more time, ones that need more investigation or information.
If you have a goal to improve the quality of a part and lower your scrap rate you may determine this can be achieved with an investment in a new technology machine. It may be easy to determine if this is possible just by looking at the money you have available. If you do not have the money you may need to do some more investigation on loans or payback for this investment. You may determine that this is not a goal you can achieve in the next six months. Some items are easy to work thru and some will take more time and may need to be put on the “back burner” until more time can be spent on that idea.
The owner should be running the business so when a goal needs more information it may be better to delegate this idea to someone. That person can spend the time to gather more information and investigate deeper into what needs to be done to accomplish the goal. They should also look at different ways to achieve an objective. With this information you can determine if this is a goal the company should pursue.
The owner should be assisting, guiding and directing, not working in the business to achieve the goals. The transformation of your company will move faster if you have your company involved in the changes that are necessary. That means you will want to identify the key people in your company and get them together for some group discussions on your goals. You are going to need these people to execute your plans so it will be good to have their ideas as well as their “buy in” on what the company is doing. Start this involvement as early as you can and at a time that you can properly manage it.
You want to encourage your people to write down their ideas and what they think the company should do. Ask people to provide ideas and goals that can be achieved and are based on what they feel they can help with. You want people to be realistic and think shorter term so that the ideas and goals are achievable. You want to know how your people are thinking and how ambitious they are for the success of your company. You also want to learn who can build on your ideas and who can provide more effort in pushing your company forward.
If you do not want an open discussion or feedback you can ask people to focus on 3 to 5 areas you think the company should have goals in. You can provide the goals you have or just the subjects of your goals. This will help to make your people aware of the areas you feel are important. The objective is to have people generate ways to move your company forward in a way that they know they can accomplish.
This is the time to start bringing together your goals and your people’s ideas. Do not rush this process. You want people to have time to create solid ideas that have some conviction. You want people to believe what they are suggesting and give them time to absorb their new way of thinking. You may find that some things may start changing on their own because people will know that there is a better way or that their current path was not the correct way to get the needed results.
In your follow up sessions you can start to lead the discussions in the direction you need them to go. You can start to form the ideas into more specific objectives and goals. You need to share these company goals with everyone so there is a vision of where the company is headed. You also need to incorporate your people’s ideas so your goals and vision are ones your employees can relate to, can take ownership of and feel are achievable.
The process of involving your people in the development of goals, objectives and ultimately a vision for your company is important because the process of executing the necessary changes and action steps will be much easier. It better when your people are interested in working on ideas they helped to form. It will be good for your company to understand how the goals will relate to them and their job. It will be good to have them believe the goals are achievable. This process may be slower than you may want however the long term results will be much better when you have the whole company interested and they have had time to absorb the transformation that you need to enact.
When the goals and company vision has been established you can start working with people to develop the action plans for these goals. You can structure the next discussions and meetings on these ideas and topics so that they are worked on. Your people will need to generate the path. Moving forward toward goals will involve taking steps in the right direction. The main objective here is to help direct the action steps so there is success and accomplishments along the way. There needs to be progress and it should be recognized so that the goal stays believable and the vision stays alive.
The main idea in this section is to find a way of bringing together your ideas and goals with your employee’s ideas and goals. You can lead many discussions and you can prioritize your objectives however you want people to participate and work on this as if it was their own. Keeping your people active in the process will generate better results as well as a faster completion date. This process will also keep your goals alive in peoples mind so they want to make them happen.