Question

(11 Planning Goal setting: mission statement; setting effective goals, crisis planning; SWOT analysis 12. Decision Making; Programmed and nonprogrammed decisions; uncertainty, ambiguity: ㄧ intuition; decision-making steps; Why Do Managers Make Bad Decisions?; brainstorming

Answer 1

Planning /Goal Setting:

Planning is critical for any organisation because of below two reasons

• To reinforce our commitment to meritocracy and high performance work ethic
• To bring about higher focus on employee engagement and competency depth

Effective goal Setting:

Below are key criteris for effective Goal setting:

• Provides employees an opportunity to have a holistic view of the organization goals.
• Aligns employee goals to business outcomes of the organization through goal cascading
• Provides clarity to an employee on his/her role and responsibilities.
• Encourages behaviors that are likely to produce the required outcomes
• Balances the expected outcomes across peer groups.
• Ensures goal parity and a fair evaluation.
• Ensures optimal level of goal complexity and the right goal mix

Goals/Performance measures need to be aligned to the role of the Appraisee. Goals/Performance measures need to be aspirational in nature.Identify goal categories that are applicable based on the employees role in the project/assignment. Ensure clear targets are set for all applicable performance measures and the targets need to be defined objectively.

Some of the issues related to planning and prioritizing are:

• Goals

Most often, planning is carried out keeping in mind available resources. A goal driven plan can be well-laid out by detailed plans that throws up the need for additional resources in order to achieve the goals. Often goals are not set.

• Awareness

Often one is unaware of the potential of existing resources, tools and techniques for planning

• Short Term Focus - Lack of clarity on long term needs, both personal and organizational. Losing focus mid way if plans don’t work out, sticking only to the original plan and not treating plans as dynamic

• Fire-fighting – One can be so deeply embroiled in crisis management and fire-fighting that one simply does not have the time to plan

• Stakeholder involvement - Not involving the relevant stakeholders in the planning process can prevent a good plan from effective implementation

• Optimum objectivity – For any plan to be effective, it needs to take into account subjective criteria such as interest level of people, interpersonal requirements to carry out the plan, emotional disturbances that can prevent people from functioning effectively, etc

• Unable to decide the importance of an issue – In general, problems are addressed applying the ‘first in first out’ theory. Unless the importance of solving a problem is known, problems enter into a queue and get served in order of entry

Issues related to Crisis Planning and Prioratising

Unable to dedicate the right amount of time for a task – Often people are not able to decide how much time can be allocated to complete a task. So the unimportant tasks are given more time than needed

While ‘productivity pyramid’ helps to set long term goals, S-M-A-R-T method can be used to set effective goals.

Specific Goals

It is essential to set specific goals to have a clear idea of the goal. If the goal is ambiguous it will be difficult to follow up the goal by a plan and also not possible to measure performance for example, if the goal is "to be successful", it is a very ambiguously defined and a more specific goal would be "to own a company". This would ward off all ambiguity.

Measurable Goals
Every goal would remain a DREAM if not followed by an action plan and continuously monitored. Hence it is very important to set a measurable goal in order to get back and gauge performance. It also helps to quantify the results. As the old adage goes, "What cannot be measured cannot be improved."

Goals should be set such that there is enough control over them. There is nothing as dispiriting as failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond one’s control such as bad business environments, poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. Goals based on outcomes are extremely vulnerable to failure because of things beyond one’s control.

Attainable Goals

It is essential to set attainable or realistic goals. Many a times we set unattainable goals thinking that even if we can meet a part of it, we would do justice to them. But this can also be very de-motivating.

Set realistic attainable goals and meet them.

Some of the reasons for setting the highly unrealistic goals are as follows:

• Other people – Other people (manager, peers, and personal relatives) can set goals, based on what they want. Often this will be done in ignorance of the second person’s goals, desires and ambitions
• Insufficient information – If a clear, realistic understanding of what you are trying to achieve and of the skills and knowledge to be mastered is lacking, it is difficult to set effective and realistic goals
• Always expecting your best performance – People often set goals keeping in mind their best performance. This ignores the inevitable backsliding that can occur for good reasons, and ignores the factors that led to that best performance. It is better to set goals that raise your average performance and make it more consistent
• Lack of self-respect – Not respecting your right to rest, relaxation and pleasure in life, can result in a burnout

Hence, it is essential to set realistic goals and not to overestimate your resources.

Relevant Goals

The goals should be relevant to you as an individual, to the set of individuals involved as stakeholders for achieving the goals and to the organization. Never set your individual goals based on other people's dreams. Goals might need certain skills so ensure you have the adequate skilled resources to meet the goals.

Time-bound
Goals need to be time bound. This is the most important aspect of a goal. Timelines are necessary to ensure follow up and to gauge the development of the goal. Incase of a huge goal, break the goal into smaller goals.

SWOT Analysis:

1.1.1SWOT Analysis

A SWOT Analysis allows one to objectively assess the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat of any given situation.

Following table guides to do a SWOT analysis:

SWOT	Questions to be answered	Remarks
Strengths	What are the advantages?	To be considered from one’s own point of view and from the point of view of one’s customers and other stakeholders in the situation
Weaknesses	What could be improved? What is done badly? What should be avoided?	Again, this should be considered from internal and external perspectives - do your customers perceive weaknesses that you don't see? Do your competitors do any better? Again, it is best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths at this stage in the planning process
Opportunities	Where are areas of good choices available to you? What are the interesting trends?	Useful opportunities which may come from such things as follows - Changes in technology and markets on both broad and industry-specific scale - Changes in government policy related to your field - Changes in social patterns, population profiles, life style changes, etc.
Threats	What obstacles do you face? What is your competitor doing? Are the required specifications for your products and services changing? Is changing technology threatening your position?	Carrying out this analysis is often illuminating - both in terms of pointing out what needs to be done, and in pointing out that problems may be smaller than initially anticipated.