Turbo Leadership Systems^™

Set your goal & plan ahead

Kurt, project manager for a Clark County commercial plumbing contractor, told Session 10B of Turbo’s Leadership Development Lab (LDL):

“When we were given the assignment at session 9 of the LDL of setting a 1-year goal to report on at session 10, I knew right away what I wanted to achieve. In my new responsibility of overseeing our Fab Shop, my goal is to cut preproduction assembly time 25% by the end of 2013. This is my BHAG – my inspiring, big, hairy, audacious goal. I wanted to reduce costs and bring more order to the chaotic approach we had been taking to the preassembly portion of our project management. I had a couple of ideas about how we could remove some of the costs. The LDL assignment required that we list and share three detailed steps we would take to achieve our goal. I began thinking in more depth about my plan and developed firm, detailed actions.

“I am going to achieve my goal by taking these three steps - First I will work with our project foremen at the beginning of each job to get a copy of the shop drawings. This will allow me to pre-schedule our fab crew and start our part of the project early enough that we have the time needed to complete the assemblies on schedule. This will help avoid the fire drill of having to stop one job to work on a different project because a foreman needs his completed assembly TOMORROW!

“Second I am going to measure our production so I know how much time various configurations are taking to assemble. This will allow me to better schedule my crew and project our workloads. By doing this I will keep plenty of work out in front of the fab crew, maximizing productivity. This will also help me set meaningful schedule targets which will be written on our new production planning white board score chart for the fab crew and everyone else to see.

“Third I am going to stimulate competition – Leadership Principle #10 - and give plenty

of praise for a job well done – Leadership Principle #4. This will give our team motivation and a sense of ownership, a major factor in improving productive output. Each time we set a production record, we will have a celebration. I will keep everyone aware of the overall project’s performance so my crew can feel like part of the big picture.”

Now go back and reread this wonderful story about setting BHAG goals. Ask yourself a couple of questions:

1. Are my goals as clearly articulated as Kurt’s? Is there room for me to make my goals clearer, more concise, and more meaningful?
2. Do I have a well thought-out, up-to-date 3- step action plan?
3. Are we celebrating successful achievements in a timely, energizing way?
4. Do my people feel like they are a part of the big picture? Do they know how their part of the process is helping us win?

Follow Kurt’s example. Your department, your organization, and most important, every member of your team, will be winners.

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