Goal Setting and its effects on performance

Goals are the future outcome of that individuals and organizations strive to achieve whereas goal setting is the process of stating goals towards which individuals,teams,departments and organizations will strive to achieve.
Setting the right goal is very important.

The importance of goals are:-

1.)Goals guide and direct behaviour.

2.)Goals provide standards and challenges against which individual and organizational performance can be judged.

3.)Goals define the basic organizational design.

The Pygmalion effect can also be used to emphasize on the the fact that goal setting is important.
The Pygmalion effect is the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform.and conversely low expectations lead to a decrease in performance.

So our goals should be smart

Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Specific: A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal.

Measurable - 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.

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.

Realistic- To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal should be realistic

Timely – A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency.

Performance is a function of goal setting and if the goal setting is done smartly the outcomes are bound to good.

Hence goal setting should be done by putting a lot of thought.

Happy Reading :)

Management lessons learnt through cubes...

After the first lecture from Prof. Mandi,which was very innovative and fun my expectations from the second lecture were huge and  I was not disappointed.The class started with Prof Mandi distributing a few cubes to the students and I was very excited about what the task was going to be this time.Then sir explained to us that we have to build a tower using these cubes putting one cube over the other vertically with no support provided to them.He then asked us to predict how many cubes can be put over each other before the tower eventually falls down.

Then started a series of predictions by students ranging from 12-28 and my personal prediction was 18.Then came a surprise from Prof Mandi.He told us that one student will make the cube tower with his eyes open and one will make it with his eyes closed.The closed eyed person was only supposed to use one of his two hands but he will be guided by a second person who can't help him physically but can only guide him and motivate him.The blindfolded person will be the worker,the person guiding him will be the manager and besides these two there will be one more person who will the CEO but he would not do anything other than watching the manager and worker do the required work.

Tower Building by the open eyed person

Prof Mandi initially asked the student doing the task how much cubes can he use to build the tower and the student then gave Prof. Mandi a number but then Prof Mandi told him to bet Rs 350 on it.If the student makes a tower using the exact number of cubes as he had mentioned earlier then he would get his money back otherwise he would not.After hearing this the prediction of the student doing the task came down and he then predicted that he will make a tower of 14 cubes which was much lesser the number he had mentioned earlier.

This teaches us when the risk goes up we tend to lose confidence in ourselves and lose faith in our capabilities.But when the student started doing the task then he made a tower of 22 cubes exceeding his own expectations.This teaches us that we should never lower our expectations when the risk goes up.We should have confidence in our capabilities.

Tower Building by the closed eyed person

When the closed eyed person started building the tower almost all of us had very less expectations from him.We were sure that there is no way he can build a tower higher than the one made by open eyed person.Then the tower building began.The blindfolded guy did what the guy guiding him was telling him to do.At very single step the manager motivated him,told him what to do,where to move his hands and to ensure that the tower didn't fall when it was about to fall.When the tower buiding was finished we were amazed to see that the closed eyed person made a tower using 27 cubes which was 5 more than the cubes used  by the open eyed person.The lesson learnt here was that when ever a person is being guided and motivated by his manager the results obtained are always better.

Lessons learnt from the tower building game

Craft vs Modern Management

The two scenarios of tower building can be related to craft management(old management) and modern management.When the open eyed person building the tower it was craft management.In this type of management a single person has to do the entire work for e.g a cobbler,although in this case the work satisfaction and the skills will be more but the productivity will suffer.In the case of  closed eyed person i.e modern management different people are doing different work.The worker is making the building,the manager is guiding and motivating him and the CEO is just a mere observer.In this the work satisafaction will be less,the skills will be less but the productivity will be high.The following table summarizes the comparison between the two.

Parameters	Craft Management	Modern Management
Work	Ambiguous	Crystal Clear
Skill	Increase	Decrease
Productivity	Low	High
Satisfaction	More	Less
Innovation	Less	More

Role of Middle Management

The role of middle management is to support,guide and motivate the workers.They don't have to do any other work.However if they are not able to do the above mentioned things then they are dispensable in any organization.

Goal Setting

When the blindfolded person was building the tower almost everyone has very low expectations from him.The lesson learnt here is that we should lower our expectations in time of adversity and have in potential of the person doing the task.

happy reading :)

It was my second day at NITIE and a lecture on subject Principles of Organization and Management was about to start.I had attended a lot of lectures in my life before and I was expecting this lecture to be similar where a teacher would come in the class and immediately start telling the students about the course details and the books to refer and then start teaching the course related topics.But i was surprised when our teacher Dr T Prasad aka Prof. Mandi walked into the classroom and told all students to sit down on the floor with him.I was amazed and was not sure what was going to happen next but Prof Mandi in his trademark way made all the students feel comfortable just within minutes of entering into the class.

Prof Mandi then gave a lecture that i will not forget for the rest of my life.He told us that he will teach us business.He told us about Mandi,an exclusive NITIE event where students apply management concepts learned in the college to make money and donate to a NGO.

I was in awe already but then he used certain toys to teach us the subject.He used a Newton's cradle to teach us consumer behaviour.When a spherical ball at one extreme end is made to hit the other balls then all the balls are triggered into motion and ball at the other extreme end is moved and it hits back the balls which triggered it into motion and sets them into motion and the ball that initially started the motion is swung back to postion from which it initially started and the cycle continues.In the same way when value is created and delivered to customers it brings back customers.Every oraganization to be successful has to create products and services keeping customers in mind.This helps them in retaining existing customers and getting new ones.

He also brought balls and a butterfly to told us to have fun while studying.

The first lecture by Prof Mandi was very innovative and fun in which i learned a lot.I hope to attend all his future lectures.

Happy reading :)