Nine Questions to Ask About a Goal - Part 3 of 3
by Jay Hollowell - July 30, 2009
Setting strategic goals is the joint responsibility of all members of your career school's team; each employee should be part of the goal-setting process. In our last two blogs, we looked at six questions to help ensure that our employees develop goals that are effective and obtainable.
In today's blog we address the last three questions to ask about a goal. Please note that it is not an exhaustive list, however, the nine questions we have now addressed in Parts 1, 2 and 3 of our blog at least lay a foundation for developing accomplishable goals.
7. Is there a contingency plan? Plain and simple, things change! And changes in the external environment, as well as in our own organizations, can alter how a goal is implemented, or even if the goal is still attainable. To help ensure success in achieving the outcome, a contingency plan should be in place as a back-up strategy.
8. Are interim checkpoints clearly established? Every goal has an expected final outcome. Yet, for successful goal achievement, an organization's action plan should include checkpoints along the way. These interim benchmarks help to identify stages of goal accomplishment and monitor progress toward the ultimate outcome.
9. Is the goal flexible? Though a contingency plan, if executed, may completely alter a goal and its implementation, if the goal itself is flexible, there is more chance for success. It's true that effective goals are SMART, but a goal that is too rigid is subject to failure given any degree of change.
In short, effective goal-setting is part of an ongoing strategic process of determining where an organization is, where it wants to be, how it plans to get there, and how it knows when it has successfully arrived. In our next blog, we will overview this full strategic planning process that surrounds an institution's goals.
Jay Hollowell is the Training Manager for MaxKnowledge and has over 28 years of experience in adult education, corporate training and workforce development. He has designed and facilitated adult education/training programs throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. In the career college sector, Jay has worked in numerous positions with an emphasis on faculty development, student retention and placement. His academic work is in business and education.