In my previous two posts I have introduced the important of teams and started laying out the essentials for effective team building. These posts are deliberately ordered in terms of priority. So while the first post was a generalised introduction about teams the next one was about purpose. So it is a natural progression from the reasoning that teams exist for a purpose that this purpose should then be divided into goals.
A key difference between purpose and goals is that purpose provides an overview and therefore does not need to be too specifically defined whereas goals should be specific and usually be accompanied by clear deadlines.
Invariably goals can be split into three intuitive time frames as follows.
Short-Term Goals
These should be easily achievable within a relatively short span of time. This serves not only to kick start the project but also is a great morale booster as it should have a very tangible feeling of progress being made.
Mid-Term Goals
The main function of these is to act as performative benchmarks in that they are a really good way to measure progress against time. We might take a similar approach and it is an easy illustration when going on a journey. Imagine we need to travel 100 miles and we allow 3 hours to get there plus one hour for contingency. If we have done 50 miles in 90 minutes we know we are pretty much on target. This example is an oversimplification but makes the point. However, as with all goals they should be clearly defined.
Long-Term Goals
These are roughly aligned with the original purpose of the team. However there might be some variation due to a change in circumstances and thus the team project's end goals change. An easy illustration of this could be a football team who are looking to expand their stadium in 2020 and were working towards that goal, but then Covid restrictions came in and so they decided to both delay the project and reduce the amount of new seating to add due to the need to still balance the budget.
Newer methodologies like Agile working aim to compensate for the evolution and possible morphing of projects - and indeed the team who is expected to deliver it but honestly speaking (and maybe I am too old school) I think that this just B.S. selling of my little business idea to corporations who should know better. It is obvious to regularly review and assess both progress and goals through and adjust accordingly whether you are using traditional waterful methodologies or these new-fangled ("please buy this perfect method from me") alternatives.
We shouldn't sell B.S. we should simplify our approaches and apply a thick layer of common sense.
Finally, goals are further broken down into tasks which then are delegated to team members who are selected based on the skills they bring to the table because they are best suited to complete each one.
So now we have covered purpose and goals which are underpinning principles we are ready to move on. In next next post we will look at leaders and leadership
As always stay safe and well my friends.
