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BUSINESS BASICS & BEST PRACTICES BULLETIN

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Competitive Knowledge for Manufacturing People 
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I’m often asked, “What is the most important personal 
initiative that one should master in pursuit of 
business and personal success?” 

Since there are several crucial skills and practices 
associated with successful people, the most important 
is really dependant on the business environment and a 
person’s persona. That said I believe that one’s 
ability to make positive things happen in difficult 
working environments is most important.

All of the successful people I have known have had the 
ability to make positive things happen in difficult 
working environments. They got there by mastered the 
process of identifying, pursuing and achieving stretch 
goals. 

If you’re interested in improving your ability to make 
positive things happen in a difficult work environment, 
don’t miss reading this weeks article, “Make Success 
Measurable with SMART.”

Have a nice day, keep the faith, and stay connected.

Bill Gaw
Business Basics, LLC
Bg@bbasicsllc.com
760-945-5596

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Douglas Smith in his book, "Make Success Measurable" 
gives us some good advice on how setting specific 
goals allows actions to become meaningful in many ways. 
He suggests that we apply the acronym SMART in 
establishing performance goals.

* S is for Specific. The more tightly you can define 
your goal, the more directed and focused your actions 
will be. Consider, the goal of "reducing the time to 
market of new products by half while doubling the hit 
rate." It uses specific measures, double and half, to 
tell everyone how much the company seeks to improve. 

* M is for Measurable. Goals must be measurable if you 
hope to benefit from the tracking and learning so 
critical to performance. Even if the metrics are 
subjective, you should be able to assess how much 
progress you're making.

* A is for Aggressive. Setting lofty goals is 
inspiring: the higher we aim, the more we achieve. But 
A is also for Achievable. Set stretch goals, but don't 
put them too far out of reach.

* R is for Relevant. The goals should pertain directly 
to the performance challenge. It's almost a reflex to 
pick lagging indicators such as revenues and profits. 
But if Sears wishes to increase the number of customers 
who purchase from more than one department on each 
store visit, the most direct and relevant goal is 
"multiple department purchases per customer per visit."

* T is for Time. Ask yourself: When will we reach this 
goal? Then set a time. Without a deadline, a goal is 
meaningless. Be careful to make the time frame relevant 
to the task. Don't select it just because it matches 
the corporate calendar.

Setting goals, achieving them, and then setting new 
goals is a cycle that should never end. To do this 
effectively, set SMART outcome-based-goals, as just 
discussed. Next, exert the effort required to progress 
and learn; don't think the goals will achieve 
themselves. Ask what worked and what didn't.

Be sure to pursue goals in real time, not organization 
time. That is, work on achieving your SMART goals 
between meetings, not just during them. And then go 
through the cycle a second time, a third time, and so 
on, each time setting and reaching more interesting and 
challenging goals.

High performance companies don’t wait until annual 
performance evaluations to acknowledge achieved goals. 
They acknowledge and celebrate in real-time as goals 
are achieved, and people possessing the ability to make 
positive things happen in difficult working environments 
set the bar higher and reinitiate their pursuit of the 
new goal.

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Most important to goal achievement is the ability to 
monitor and track progress to plan and to identify and 
execute timely corrective actions to ensure that goals 
are achieved on schedule. 

To help you optimize your performance management 
process, I have extracted the "Balanced Scorecard" 
Training Module from my e-Tutorial, "Kaizen Based Lean 
Manufacturing" and it's now available to you and your 
company on CD.

This training module is in the form of a PowerPoint 
presentation with expert commentary and annotated 
footnotes by yours truly ... it's like attending one 
of my seminars in person, as I guide you personally 
through the process. It can be used as a self-paced at 
your place e-learning tool or as a PowerPoint training 
presentation for self-directed business teams.

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Business Basics, LLC
6003 Dassia Way, Oceanside, CA 92056
West Coast: 760-945-5596

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6003 Dassia Way, Oceanside, CA 92056
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