SMART Goal Setting and Pygmalion Effect


When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.

-Confucius

Goal setting is first stage of any organization building or ambition realization

Many people feel as if they're adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile. A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and haven't set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!

Click this video to find out how to set powerful goals.

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality.

You set your goals on a number of levels:

• First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.

This is why we start the process of goal setting by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.

Now we will discuss a SMART way to achieve our goals.

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Timely

Specific: A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal you must answer the six “W” questions:

*Who:      Who is involved?

*What:     What do I want to accomplish?

*Where:    Identify a location.

*When:     Establish a time frame.

*Which:    Identify requirements and constraints.

*Why:      Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

EXAMPLE:  A general goal would be, “Get in shape.” But a specific goal would say, “Join a health club and workout 3 days a week.”

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Measurable -  What you can't measure, you cant control.

 Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set.

When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as……

How much? How many?

How will I know when it is accomplished?

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Attainable – When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.

You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goals you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.

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Realistic- To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress.

A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love.

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Timely – A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs, when do you want to lose it by? “Someday” won’t work. But if you anchor it within a timeframe, “by May 1st”, then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.

Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.

T can also stand for Tangible – A goal is tangible when you can experience it with one of the senses, that is, taste, touch, smell, sight or hearing.

When your goal is tangible you have a better chance of making it specific and measurable and thus attainable.

                                  Pygmalion Effect

Now we will discuss Pygmalion Effect which states that the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform. The effect is named after Pygmalion, a play by George Bernard Shaw.

Just how do elevated expectations promote greater achievement? It’s not some magical act of inspiration. Rather, Rosenthal and others have found that higher expectations lead teachers (or other authority figures) to act differently in regard to the learner, in four very specific ways:

1. They create a warmer “socio-emotional climate” for the learners they regard as high-potential, often conveying this warmth through non-verbal signals: a nod, an encouraging smile, a touch on the shoulder.

2. They teach more material, and more difficult material, to learners they see as especially promising.

3. They give up-and-coming learners more opportunities to contribute, including additional time to respond to questions.

4. They offer their “special” learners feedback on performance that is more detailed and more personalized — not just a generic “Good job.”

It can be difficult to deliberately change our expectations of others. But we can consciously change our behavior. By adopting the set of behaviors above, we’ll be acting like our kids, our students or our employees have great potential — potential that they’ll more than likely live up to.

References:

Wikipedia

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Human Motivation Theories of X and Y

Dear Friends,

Today I will discuss motivation of human resources which is an integral part of every organization. For this I will take up the McGregor’s theory of X and Y. Theory X and Theory Y have to do with the perceptions managers hold on their employees, not the way they generally behave. It is attitude not attributes. In this post I will first explain the two theories and then discuss the benefits and drawbacks.

                                 Theory X

1.       In this theory, which has been proven counter effective in most modern practice, management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work.

2.       As a result of this, management believes that workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed.

3.       Theory X managers rely heavily on threat and coercion to gain their employees' compliance.

4.       They will blame the person first in most situations, without questioning whether it may be the system, policy, or lack of training that deserves the blame.

                       Results of applying theory X

1.       Beliefs of this theory lead to mistrust, highly restrictive supervision, and a punitive atmosphere.

2.       Employees lose their self-confidence and are not able to use their self-potential to the fullest.

3.       This theory is an efficient tool in the hands of managers to transfer blame to their subordinates.

4.       It also results in high attrition rate since employees tend to go to companies with good work culture.

               Advantages of this theory

The only advantage seems to be in case of motivation by coercive tactic, in which a person is poised to perform well when he is threatened. The best example is in case of Hitler’s reign when many scientific and military innovations were done under his dictatorship.

                        Theory Y

1.       In this theory, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control.

2.       Given the proper conditions, theory Y managers believe that employees will learn to seek out and accept responsibility and to exercise self-control and self-direction in accomplishing objectives to which they are committed.

3.       It is believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation.

4.       Employees in this theory are given ample freedom to perform and create value according to their talents.

     Results of applying this theory

1.       Managers communicate openly with subordinates, minimizing the difference between superior-subordinate relationships.

2.       A comfortable environment is created in which subordinates can develop and use their abilities. This climate would be sharing of decision making so that subordinates have say in decisions that influence them.

3.       This theory results in overall happiness of employees which also has salient effects on society.

4.       Attrition rate of a company is reduced and increased profits are realised.

  Disadvantage of this theory

It is seen that talented people become careless in their jobs and assignments when there is no hierarchy or supervision in an organization. A simple example is introduction of regulations in some states that students cannot be failed till 8^th std. The result is a large number of students who come in class 9^th cannot even write a single sentence in their mother tongue..

                                   Now let us take few statements.
 1. Theory X Manager assumes LAZY  workers as LAZY  and make them work.

In this case manager identifies the lazy workers and instead of discussing with them about the problems they might be facing, the manager reprimands and threatens  them to work hard.

2. Theory X Manager assumes NOT LAZY  workers as NOT LAZY  and make them work.

Now there are employees who are hardworking. Theory X manager tries to exploit their hard working nature by bombarding them with more amount of work, this leads to overworked employees and affects their performance.


3. Theory Y Manager assumes LAZY  workers as LAZY  and make them work.

In this case Theory Y manager identifies LAZY worker  and discusses one on one with him over the problems he might be facing. He tell him that sincerity is good for his own benefit and that he would be ready to help in his training and development.

4. Theory Y Manager assumes NOT LAZY  workers as NOT LAZY  and make them work.

In this case Theory Y manager identifies talented people and instead of increasing the workload gives them a new role of responsibility and learning.

What are the implications of the above FOUR statements for the organizations?
 Implication of the above statement in organization is about how do we handle the  employees with different talents and work ethics. No two employees are same and so their method of handling should be different. Theory Y ensures that a manager can get the best out of their talent by motivating and addressing their problems.

In my company I came across both Manager X and Manager Y. Manager X was only concerned with getting the task finished on time regardless of the learning and the motivation of the employees. He used to give deadlines and reprimand the employees if the task was not completed.
   Then there was a senior manager who used to help employees by sitting next to their seat and addressing their problems. He was very motivating and encouraging and would tell them to learn new technologies which would help them advance their career.

Tower Building and Organization Management

  Hi All,

In today's blog I will discuss “Tower Building”, Dr. Mandi's unique way of discussing the step by step development of organization. In this exercise Dr. Mandi handed us small wooden cubes. Then he asked anyone to make as tall a tower as one can with these cubes. Obviously, there was a limit to which one can create the tower alone. Then he explained that few people can not constitute an organization and that a team of people with proper role allocation and responsibilities is required for proper organization management. He quoted the examples of small shoemakers and apparel manufacturers where there is little organization management because they follow the process which is been followed for years with little or no change in their method of organizing.

Then there was another activity in class where a team of students was supposed to make the tower by collaborating with each other. As it turned out, a team of eight was formed and they had no clue how to allocate the tasks! Dr. Mandi explained that the idea of organization starts with one and gradually one's inductive effect can create a well structured organization.
You can watch this video for tower building to learn organization development.

In this Team Building Challenge, teams must construct the tallest free-standing tower possible from the limited resources provided. The team will be confronted with many challenges during this Team Building exercise, mainly due to the dynamics of their team. They are:-
    1. Limited resources
    2. The tower must be free standing
    3. Time is restricted
    4. Can only build one tower
    5. Must stay standing for over 10 seconds

With this exercise I realized how important in organization it is to utilize everyone's potential to realize overall goals. For example to actually build a "Toy Tower", you need a person to place the cubes, one to looking at vertically alignment, one to analyze wind speed and another one to hold the  

cubes in case they tumble. team dynamic here is important and so in any organization.
When assembling a team it is very important to consider the overall dynamic of the team. 

The team members: Successful teams are made up of a collection of effective individuals. These are people who are experienced, have problem solving ability, are open to addressing the problem, and are action oriented.

1. Team relationships: For a team to be successful the members of the team must be able to give and receive feedback.
2. Team problem solving: An effective team depends on how focused and clear the goal of the team is. A relaxed, comfortable and accepting environment and finally, open and honest communication are required.
3. Team leadership: Effective team leadership depends on leadership competencies. A competent leader is: focused on the goal, ensures a collaborative climate, builds confidence of team members, sets priorities, demonstrates sufficient “know-how” and manages performance through feedback.
4. Organizational environment: The climate and culture of the organization must be conducive to team behavior. Competitiveness should be discouraged and uniformity should be encouraged - this will eliminate conflict and discord among team members.

Goals:The overall goals of team building are to increase the teams understanding of team dynamics and improve how the team works together. Unlike working as a group, working as a team incorporates group accountability rather than individual accountability and results in a collective work product.Team building encourages the team approach to working on a project. There are many advantages to this approach. These advantages include the following:

1. Increased flexibility in skills and abilities
2. More productive than work groups with individual mindset
3. More beneficial in times of organizational change
4. Encourage both individual and team development and improvement
5. Focuses on group goals to accomplish more beneficial tasks
6. Improved range of team building objectives such as collaboration, communication and increased creative or flexible thinking

So this was the learning from the playful tower building activity in class. Do give your valuable feedback.

                                       Game begins at NITIE!!

17 June,2013, my first day for MBA program in a premier college called NITIE. The first class of every new course program is usually memorable. That day was no exception. This class was taken by Dr. T. Prasad. In between the class only we came to know that he was the ever popular Dr. Mandi, the convener of the nationally popular entrepreneurship event called “MANDI”. As soon as he entered the class and put the bag on table, he threw globe shaped rubber balls all over the class and, to our pleasant surprise, asked us to play freely. I then realized why many people say that MBA is fun. He also passed butterfly shaped plastic toys and ducks sliding on the rails.He also pulled off his shoes which reminded me of MF Hussain!Then started the highly interactive discussion with Dr Mandi about how much money we have sacrificed for pursuing this MBA program. He told us that every day of a person's life is important and that a person should earn his bread on the same day(Aaj ki roti aaj hi kamana!). He said that we are to sacrificing 2500 per day for MBA.He told us about the spirit of entrepreneurship and gave examples of his students who are successfully running their businesses. After this there was a small activity in the class where one student was asked to sell the butterfly shaped plastic toy to other student. It was rather funny, given the reasons one person gave to other for buying the product!

After this he came out with his non-conventional theory that “Teachers are not the only way of imparting education”. He explained in the context of Management education that if everyone wrote blogs after every class discussion, there will no use of books or management institutes because there will be a lot of diverse and relevant material on the internet free of cost.

His next class on the same day was even more interesting. He asked few students to come out and sing the Pink Floyd's epic song “We don't need no education”. He explained the beauty of this song saying that it urged the world to allow the students to have free thought. Kids and students are not just another brick in the wall, all of them have different talents and aspirations. He ended the class motivating us to write blogs on the topics which are discussed in the class.

So this was my first day in NITIE which infused in me a lot of positive energy for pursuing this exhaustive program. Keep watching my blog for more insightful and knowledgeable articles learned from Dr. Mandi.