Setting SMART and Meaningful Goals

0:09 so we tie the goals of menlo to the 0:11 goals of our clients 0:13 and what are we trying to achieve for 0:14 them and on behalf of their users 0:16 we start to break those goals down into 0:18 smaller and smaller pieces until we 0:20 finally get it down to these little 0:22 handwritten index cards that are 0:24 selected by our clients in a planning 0:26 session every single week 0:28 where we're deciding what are the 0:29 intermediate goals to get to the 0:31 long-term goal that we're trying to 0:32 accomplish 0:33 on behalf of them for the project 0:36 they're paying us to do 0:38 those little handwritten index cards 0:40 become the individual goals for every 0:42 team member 0:43 every pair we put them up on the wall 0:46 for all to see 0:47 so there's a lack of ambiguity in our 0:50 space i think 0:51 removing ambiguity is one of the best 0:53 ways to get to motivation 0:55 it's one of the best ways to clarify 0:57 goals for the team by having a work plan 0:59 up on the wall and have it be a sane 1:01 work plan that fits in a normal work 1:03 week 1:04 where you're not just completely 1:06 overloading people with 1:08 200 percent of their average work week 1:11 in workload and you never know exactly 1:13 what to pick we pick a sane workload 1:15 that people can actually work on and 1:16 feel like 1:17 each goal by goal that they're 1:19 accomplishing is 1:21 conforms really well to the idea of the 1:23 progress 1:24 principle that is i got something done 1:27 today 1:27 i can actually feel like i got something 1:31 done that was meaningful something 1:32 selected by our client that's important 1:34 for them 1:35 and then we tie it all back to a 1:38 show and tell an exhibition we do once a 1:41 week with our clients 1:42 where after the work is done the client 1:45 will then 1:46 show us our work back to the team that 1:49 did the work so the team can 1:50 reconnect to the actual things they 1:53 accomplish for the week 1:54 and they can see it in the eyes of the 1:56 client that what we did was actually 1:58 meaningful was actually purposeful for 2:00 where they're trying to get their 2:01 project 2:02 and if it wasn't if for some reason we 2:04 missed the mark or we misinterpreted 2:06 what they were asking to do 2:08 we're going to find out less than five 2:10 days after we did the work 2:12 i think one of the most demotivating 2:14 things we can do for a team 2:16 is to set goals that are so far away 2:18 from us 2:19 that we we get lost in the in the milieu 2:23 of all the activities 2:24 and then we forget why we're coming to 2:26 work every day we forget why we're 2:28 working on the thing we're working on 2:30 but by pulling in these regular 2:32 weekly reviews with our client and 2:34 attaching it directly to the work that 2:36 was accomplished that week 2:37 it's very clear why the goals i had 2:41 are the goals i had why it matters to 2:43 the customer 2:44 why it matters to the overarching goal 2:46 that we're trying to accomplish in the 2:47 whole project