 |
Techniques to get the most out of your GoalTrak application |
- When a Measurable Criterion is a single event, like the completion of a project, then use an Annual frequency and select the completion milestone date as your Start Data Collection date.
For example, suppose your goal, starting on January 1, is to increase the production off a machine by 50,000 units, and one of the obstacles you identify is that a section of the machine needs rebuilding. The preferred solution you chose is a project to rebuild the machine and have it completed by July 31.
Create a Measurable Criterion with a target of 1, an annual frequency, and a July 31 start data collection. On July 31, record a 1 in the actual results if the project was completed on time and record a 0 if it was not completed on time.
Have the System Administrator only enter data in the required fields when adding a new person and let each user complete their own personal profile. This reduces the data entry burden for the System Administrator and involves the new user early on.
Executives: Create a Key Performance Indicators(KPI) dashboard containing graphs of the primary criteria for each corporate goal. This is a quick and easy way to get a snapshot of where things stand.
Managers: Always view a goal prior to approving it. Goals that have been submitted are still changeable, so viewing prior to approving will ensure that you are looking at the latest revision. Once a goal is approved, it cannot be changed without going through the revision process.
Measurable Criteria can be used for reporting on project milestones. If the milestones have a regular frequency, then you can record whether the milestone was met or missed for each measurement due date. For milestones that are not regular, use a suitable frequency to indicate that a project report is due and record whether or not the project report was uploaded to Goal Documents.
Goal Setters: While the Goal Annotations window was implemented to allow others to collaborate with your goal, you can use the annotations field as a place to maintain information about the goal that you want to keep handy for yourself and others to see. For example, post: supporting data for criteria, contact info for collaborators or vendors, reminders and budget data.
You don't have to wait until a measurement is due to enter Actual Results. You can enter partial results at any time. This way you can keep track of your progress during those intermediary times. Be aware that the color coded square identifying the status of the criterion will still function as if you recorded a full result.
Use the Annotations field of a Goal as a collaboration tool by sharing your "Best Practices" with the Goal Owner. If everyone in the organization shares one of their best practices with one other person, the performance level of the organization will skyrocket!
Goal Setters: If you are creating a new goal and the goal you need to select as a Parent Goal does not exist, or is not yet Published, you don't have to stop working on your goal. Temporarily select another goal, or click on the Parent Strategy radio button and temporarily select a strategy. Now you can continue to create your goal. When the Parent Goal finally gets published, you can then select it as a parent and then finish creating your goal.
Use GoalTrak for creating goals that will take 6 weeks or longer to accomplish. Shorter goals are more appropriately handled by creating a list of action steps in your day planner.
Read all the help under the Goal Setting tab in the Help Section prior to writing your first goal. It contains a trenchant monograph for each goal setting step. A thorough understanding of why these nine steps are important is the key to writing high quality goals.
