GOAL SETTING FRAMEWORKS – CHANGING WORKPLACE METHODS AND STRATEGIES TO DRIVE GROWTH

 

 

Finding a method for setting goals that works and produces results for your company can make a significant difference in your performance and eventual success

It is critical to set goals for your business in order to continue to grow and develop.

These objectives can take many forms, ranging from financial objectives such as increasing revenue or profit margins by a certain percentage by the end of the year to goals that are less fiscally motivated but still important to the company, such as keeping your employees happy or becoming a more socially responsible organization.

 

OKR – THE IDEAL FRAMEWORK FOR TEAMS!

OKRs, or objectives and key results, have become a widely used framework for companies trying to plan and measure the success of their work. Leaders at each level of the organization use this system to define high-level, qualitative, inspirational goals known as “objectives.” They then define who will be the user or consumer of their team’s work, and what behavioral patterns they expect to see in those consumers that can be used to quantify whether the team is meeting their high-level objectives. These measurable outcomes are known as “key results,” and they are used to assess how successful teams are in meeting their goals.

 

This approach focuses planning and progress tracking on the impact of the work rather than micromanaging the specific work that teams do on a daily basis. As a result, it is an efficient mechanism for coordinating top-down strategy with bottom-up, team-level commitments to intermediate goals in support of that strategy. OKRs’ explicit strength lies in de-emphasizing specific tasks and focusing on the value that those tasks deliver.

 

MBO – TAILORED TO SUIT THE NEEDS OF TODAY’S RAPIDLY EXPANDING BUSINESSES

MBO is the process of defining top organizational objectives and incorporating them into employee objectives. MBO processes are designed to identify an employee’s main goals, which are then graded with group input. This enables all company contributors to see their accomplishments in relation to the company’s top priorities as they carry out their tasks, strengthening alignment between activity and outcome and significantly increasing productivity.

 

Though MBO is designed to assist in the definition and management of a set of objectives, each company’s objectives will be slightly different. It enables businesses to express their uniqueness as well as their top priorities and, most importantly, to act on them.

 

BALANCED SCORECARD – WHAT YOU MEASURE IS WHAT YOU GET

The balanced scorecard enables managers to examine the business from four critical perspectives. The balanced scorecard reduces information overload by limiting the number of measures used while providing senior management with information from four different perspectives. The balanced scorecard forces managers to concentrate on the few most important metrics. Several businesses have already implemented the balanced scorecard. Their early experiences with the scorecard have shown that it meets a variety of managerial requirements.

 

First, the scorecard combines many seemingly contrasting elements of a company’s competitive agenda into a single management report: becoming customer – focused, reducing response time, increasing efficiency, emphasizing teamwork, lowering new product launch times, and managing for the long term.

 

Second, the scorecard prevents sub optimization. The balanced scorecard forces top management to consider all important operational measures together, allowing them to see whether progress in one area may have come at the expense of another. Even the best-laid plans can go wrong.

By Aarya Sitaram   May 29, 2022