7 Top Tips for Setting and Achieving Targets

Like us, you're probably considering ways to set and beat your targets for 2017. Whether you have the ability to set your own targets or whether your targets are set by corporate, we have compiled seven top tips to help convert those targets into awesome results.  

Align Your Targets to the Needs of the Business   

The act of aligning strategy to daily actions is known as Policy Deployment (or "Hoshin Kanri" if you're a student of Lean Manufacturing). Policy Deployment aligns company goals (Strategy), with the plans of middle management (Tactics), and the work performed by employees (Operations) to ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction. 

Whether you set your own targets, or whether they are set for you, make sure they support the strategy of the business.

It is critical to align your targets with the KPI's and needs of the business. This is the essence of Policy Deployment (sometimes called "Hoshin Kanri" in Lean).

Define What You Want to Achieve   

Before setting targets, identify the results that you want to achieve and the context within which you want to achieve them. For example, you probably don't want to set the same target for your high performing teams, as for your teams who are struggling. Consider setting targets that challenge your teams to either begin, stabilize, or continue improving their process:

• Begin: If productivity has been flat, set a target that challenges people to think differently (e.g., reduce down time by 50%).
• Stabilize: If productivity has been erratic, set a modest target that encourages consistency (e.g., hit 60% OEE, 4 out of 5 days).
• Continue: If productivity has been improving, set an incremental target that maintains progress (e.g., reduce down time by 10%).

Start With Your Best   

Create healthy competition and overcome resistance to new targets by using your best achieved result as your new target. Just as athletes strive to beat their 'personal best' times whenever they compete, challenge your team to beat their previous best result. 

Pick the KPI you want to beat and identify your best recent performance. Work with the team to help them beat this target. When they succeed, document how they did it, and make this result the new target. Start again! Leveraging your best results can be accomplished with four simple steps:

To create proven achievable goals, set targets based on best achieved results.

Make It Easy To Win   

What if you set a target, and fail? Often the fear of failing prevents us from setting more aggressive targets that we actually might be able to hit. So we settle for weak targets, and unsatisfying improvement. You can make it much easier to win by setting three types of target for each objective:

• Fallback (a small improvement that you're 90% certain you can hit).
• Realistic (a decent improvement that you're 75% certain you can hit).
• Stretch (a sizable improvement that you're 25% certain you can hit).

 A stretch target will feel pretty uncomfortable. A little out of reach. You may have no clear path to achieving it. If you commit to it, you might just find a way to beat it. And wouldn't that be fantastic?

Think Targets, Talk Actions   

A common mistake is to set a target and then not define the actions needed to hit it. Once you've set a target, work with the team to identify "what do we need to do to beat our target?". Here are five interesting ways you can turn a target into actions:

• Ask an Operator: On the floor, ask an operator for one action that will help hit the target this shift. Then help them deliver it.
• One a Day: Identify one new improvement action per day.
• Hit Team: Create a 'hit team' and run a quick-win intervention.
• Improvement Blitz: Help your team run a focused improvement blitz.
• Individual Objectives: Convert the target into concrete, achievable objectives for each team member.

Speak the Language of Your Team   

Have you ever noticed how some people find it easier to explain what they "don't want" than what they "do want"? Just because you have an exciting new target and you want to change your process, it doesn't mean that everyone else will.

Talk to your team. Understand if they are "what I don't want" people, or "what I do want" people. Help them understand the impact this target will have on them. Explore what happens if they don't hit the target...and what happens if they do hit it. Emphasize the perspective that is most meaningful to them. Understanding what makes your team tick will help you motivate them to achieve great results.

"Show Me The Money"   

Some targets might need you to spend money to beat them. The inevitable question that your leadership will ask is: "If we spend this money, what's our Return On Investment (ROI)?".

There's no single formula for calculating ROI – it's dependent on your business particulars. As an example, if you want to improve your Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) here is a list of ten ROI-focused questions that can help guide you in the right direction.

As an additional perspective - while spending money may be inevitable, many teams deliver significant improvement without spending a single dollar by focusing on simple process improvement and standard work instructions.

Best of luck with 2017!

We are passionate about improvement and we love to learn new things. So if you have any questions, ideas or insights - we would love to hear from you.