Any manager might say, "I am a superviser. My job is to set goals. It is up to my subordinates to do the task". However, if the manager does not know how the task is executed, the organization will never meet its goal.

 

Goals are set to be met continuously 

 

When goals are set, managers expect it to be met within a given time period. But when an organization fails to meet the goal continuously, the reason of this phenomenon is that managers fail to acknowledge the underlying "process" on how the goal is accomplished.

 

When a goal is set, the process of which the organization achieves its goal has to be realigned. Teams, personnel, resources etc. has to be positioned so the organization can focus its full effort to meet the goal not once but continuously. However, aligning teams and changing processes indicate organizational inflexibility.  So when a goal is set, managers must consider whether the goal is relevant to current objectives.

 

Not achieving goals is a symptom

 

Goals should not be perceived as a result but as an indicator of whether the organization is effective. If a goal is not meet it indicates that the organizations' procedures are inefficient. Managers must investigate the daily procedures on how the everyday work is executed, identify bottlenecks to increase speed and streamline procedures to reduce cost and enhance efficiency. The role of a manager is to overview the overall procedures and identify the organization's procedural problems.

 

Managers must listen as well as direct

 

It is impossible for a manager to know every aspect of the organization's functions. The manager must listen to the recommendations and complaints from the workers and reflect them in goal setting and procedural change. Managers who simply "do not care" of those voices will tend to set goals direct the organization in a biased direction. Functions between teams and groups will collide. As productivity decreases, top management will again set goals that are simply impossible to meet given the current organization-wide chaos.

 

Procedural change and goal setting have to be together

 

If an objective is important, each workers' task has to orchestrated to meet the goal. When procedures are not rearranged, the goal is regarded as a sub-priority as current workers do not see how to incorporate the goal during their daily practices. As goals are set by managers, it is also an obligation of the managers to implement procedural change to meet those goals. Without procedural change, the goal will always be missed "systematically".

 

Originally written at Wordpress on April 25, 2017

Relocated and updated February 18, 2018.