Performance Objectives that Work



Contents

Contents 3

Copyright 4

What you can do 4

What you cannot do 4

Acceptance of terms 4

How to use this program 5

What is in this program? 5

Who is the program for? 5

What does the program do? 5

How does this program achieve its objectives? 5

Individual self-study 5

In an existing training program 6

A complete training program 6

What if the DVD won’t play? 6

Introduction to DVD 7

The story 8

Model training session 9

Learning Objectives 9

Preparation and facilities 9

Running the session 9

Segment 1 – What makes an effective objective? 10

Take a fifteen minute break 12

Segment 2 – Engagement in objective setting 12

Segment 3 – Summary and close 13

A guide to setting performance objectives that work 14

Introduction 14

Aspirations, aims, objectives and goals 14

SMART objectives. 14

How to achieve objectives 15

Engagement 15

The supremacy of Emotional Engagement 17

Summary 18

Case study 19

Notes on the case study 20

Flexible use of the DVD 22

The menu 22

Analysis of individual menu scenes 23

Keisha agrees without engagement 23

Paige engages Keisha 24

Gary agrees without engagement 26

Dean engages Gary 27

Copyright

What you can do

The copyright in both this Leader’s Guide and the accompanying DVD belongs to Telephone Doctor, Inc. Licensing the DVD gives you certain rights to use the material. You may use the DVD in your own organization for training your own employees.

You may photocopy or otherwise reproduce all or part of this Leader’s Guide without limit for use in your own organization. Any reproduction of this Leader’s Guide, or part thereof, must carry the notice: (Telephone Doctor, Inc.

You may edit and reproduce the PowerPoint® presentation for use in your own organization. Any reproduction of the PowerPoint® presentation must acknowledge Telephone Doctor, Inc. as the source.

You may host and deliver the DVD and this Leader’s Guide on your internal intranet provided that you purchase an additional License from Telephone Doctor, Inc. to do so and provided that you observe the terms of that License.

What you cannot do

You may not copy the DVD, not even as a backup. We understand that DVDs can become unplayable due to scratching or other damage and so we will replace the DVD if it becomes unplayable within five years of purchase, even if this is the result of carelessness or accident. We will not charge for this but you must return the unplayable DVD in order for us to replace it.

Acceptance of terms

By using the DVD or the material in this Leader’s Guide, you are deemed to have accepted these terms. If you do not accept them, you should return the DVD without using it, for a full refund.

How to use this program

What is in this program?

( DVD – Gaining Commitment – Setting Performance Objectives that Work

( This manual

( PowerPoint® presentation

Who is the program for?

Any manager or team leader who sets objectives for others.

What does the program do?

Helps managers to understand:

• How to set performance objectives.

• How to gain intellectual and emotional commitment to objectives.

Detailed learning objectives can be found in the model training session.

How does this program achieve its objectives?

By providing a resource that your organization can use in several ways:

• For individual self-study.

• As part of an existing training program.

• As a half-day training session.

Individual self-study

You can give the DVD to an individual to view either on a computer or a DVD player. This will give the individual knowledge in the subject or a reminder of the important principles.

In an existing training program

The program has been designed as a resource for you to use as you choose in your existing programs. You can use the DVD as a training program in the conventional sense. Or you can use the different meetings as the basis for exercises and discussions. And you are welcome to use the PowerPoint® presentation and the component parts of this manual in any way that suits you.

A complete training program

This manual contains trainer’s notes for a complete training session lasting half a day. If you have less time than this, you can use the DVD and the content of this manual to devise a session of any length between twenty minutes and half a day.

What if the DVD won’t play?

Our DVDs are manufactured to a high degree of quality and faults are extremely rare. Almost every problem that has been reported to us has turned out to be due to the equipment used to play the disc. These are standard DVDs exactly as you might buy for home use when playing a feature film and they are designed to be played through a standard DVD player such as you will find in most households. There are a couple of known reasons why you may have difficulty playing our DVDs in a computer. The most usual problem is that office computers are fitted with CD drives but not DVD drives. If your computer cannot see our disc at all, this is the most likely explanation. You will need to find a computer with a DVD drive or use a DVD player.

The next most common problem is that your computer has a DVD drive but does not have DVD player software installed. Your computer will be able to see our disc but not play it and you may get an error message telling you that a different CODEC is required. You will need to find a computer that does have DVD software installed.

The easiest way to tell if the problem is our disc or your equipment is to take the disc home and try it in your DVD player. Alternatively, bring in a feature film on DVD and try it in your office equipment.

If it does turn out that our disc is at fault we will replace it.

Introduction to DVD

The story is set in a fictitious travel company. The characters in the story are:

|[pic] |Paige: |Operations Manager |

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|[pic] |Dean: |Executive VP |

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|[pic] |Keisha: |Team Leader |

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|[pic] |Gary: |Technology Manager |

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|[pic] |Landon: |CEO |

The story

The senior management decided to improve the organization’s environmental performance and set the goal of being recognized as a leader in environmentally friendly tourism.

One year after this goal was set; the Business Chronicle published a table of companies ranked by environmental performance. The company comes close to bottom, or bottom, in every category.

Paige, one of the senior managers in the company, sets out to find out what has gone wrong. The only manager who seems to have produced real results in the environmental field is Dean, so she asks him why he thinks things have gone wrong.

Dean asks if Paige communicated the company goal to her staff and she responds by describing in detail how she communicated the goal to Keisha. We see the meeting between Keisha and Paige in which Keisha undertakes to reduce the annual waste of brochures. On the face of it, Paige set Keisha a perfectly sound objective – one that was specific, measurable and time bounded. However, Paige has to admit that the objective was not achieved. Dean says that this sounds like an example of the “Gary effect”. He illustrates what he means by describing his own experience with Gary the IT manager. We see this meeting in which Gary professes to be willing to help the company meet its goal but effectively blocks all Dean’s suggestions. Eventually, Gary agrees to a trivial objective that he subsequently fails to achieve.

Dean explains that he realized afterwards that the problem was that Gary was not engaged in setting the objective. He then shows us a subsequent meeting in which he gets Gary to talk about how he feels about the objective. It becomes apparent that Gary is not engaged and Dean sets about uncovering the reasons for this and addressing them. This time, Dean is able to gain full engagement and Gary contributes ideas, energy and enthusiasm to the objective-setting process. Dean learns from this that two distinct types of engagement must be present for objectives to be set and met – intellectual engagement and emotional engagement.

Paige discusses these ideas in detail with Dean and then sets out to meet with Keisha a second time.

In this final meeting, we see Paige uncover the fact that Keisha is preoccupied with other problems and does not see how the company goal can help her. Paige helps her to see that by achieving the company goal she can also address her own problems and so Paige gains the necessary engagement to get Keisha committed to achieving her objective.

Model training session

Learning Objectives

After this session, participants will:

1. Be able to explain what constitutes an effective performance objective and how it fits into the organization’s wider goals

2. Be able to describe the characteristics of an effective objective

3. Be able to explain what is meant by emotional and intellectual engagement and be able to explain the importance of each

Preparation and facilities

• Read the guide on page 14

• Review this training session

• Download and review the PowerPoint® presentation CD.

You will require a meeting room with a digital projector for the PowerPoint®, a DVD player and monitor for the DVD and a flipchart for capturing ideas. The room should allow for participants to work in small groups as well as in a single large group.

Running the session

The session has been designed to be easy to run with the participants doing much of the work themselves. The elements of the session are:

Trainer input

Trainer input sections require you as trainer to explain key ideas using the PowerPoint® presentation. You should prepare these using your own notes and your own words based on the content we provide. You will find the guide on page 14 very helpful in preparing your input.

DVD input

These sections require you to show parts of the DVD. The two parts that are used in this training session are The Movie and Author’s Comments. You should ensure that you know how to use both of these from the main menu.

Team discussion

These sections require you to divide the main group into small teams. The ideal size for these teams is four people. Three and five are workable but do not go outside that range. If you have five or fewer people in your session, do not break them up, but ask them to do the exercises as a single team. If you have six people, then use two teams of three. For seven people, create one group of three and one of four and for all larger numbers use teams of three and four.

You may choose to retain the same teams throughout or to mix people up.

Team discussions are an essential part of the session. They are much more effective than asking questions of the whole group.

Segment 1 – What makes an effective objective?

Trainer input

Welcome participants and cover housekeeping and health and safety matters according to your normal practice.

Explain that this session is about setting performance objectives that actually work and show the learning objectives from PowerPoint slide 2.

Team discussion

Divide the group into teams as described in the section on running the session. Display PowerPoint slide 3 and ask the teams to consider the two questions. Ask them to discuss their answers and allow ten minutes for this discussion.

When the time is over, ask a spokesperson from each team to explain their conclusions to the whole group. Use the flip chart to capture the points made.

Trainer input

You will need to deliver your input in the light of the points that have come out of the previous team discussion. There is no need to cover points that people clearly understand already, but it may be useful to ensure that everyone is using the same terminology and you will certainly need to cover points on which there was a mixture of different views.

Use PowerPoint slide 4. Explain that there is no universal agreement as to the various terms used in business to describe direction, but that you will be using the following definitions in this session. Use the section headed Aspirations, aims, objectives and goals from page 14 to prepare your notes on this slide.

Use PowerPoint slide 5 to introduce the subject of SMART objectives. Use the section headed SMART objectives on page 14 to prepare your notes on this slide.

Use PowerPoint slide 6 to summarize the key characteristics of an effective objective.

Team discussion

Divide the group into teams. Pose the question in PowerPoint slide 7.

Allow ten minutes for the teams to discuss this question and then invite a spokesperson from each team to explain their conclusions to the group. Use the flipchart to capture the key ideas.

It sometimes happens that there is disagreement between members of the group as to the answers to this question. If that is the case in your group, your organization has a communication problem and you will need to make sure that this is addressed by senior management. This need not stop you proceeding with the rest of this session, however.

Pose the question in PowerPoint slide 8. Allow ten minutes for the teams to discuss this question and then invite a spokesperson from each team to explain their conclusions to the group.

Be alert to the way the spokespeople phrase their objectives and pick up on any objectives that are not:

• Relevant to what the organization as a whole is trying to achieve, or

• Clear in the sense that it is possible to measure whether they have been achieved or not.

DVD input

Hugh Murray has been Chief Executive of two medium-sized organizations over 20 years and is an expert on performance management. This is how he sees the issues around setting performance objectives that work.

Show the Author’s Comments from the DVD, see PowerPoint slide 9.

Take a fifteen minute break

Discourage people from checking their e-mail and otherwise becoming involved in their work during this break. People need to unwind and relax before going on.

Segment 2 – Engagement in objective setting

Trainer input

Remind the group that Hugh Murray’s last point was that what matters more than the objective itself is whether it is achieved. And this requires people to be fully engaged in the process – intellectually and emotionally. You are now going to show a film on this aspect of objective setting.

DVD input

Show The Movie from the DVD, PowerPoint slide 10 characters, PowerPoint 11, the story

Team exercise

Divide the group into teams and explain that they are going to discuss a case study. The purpose of this study is to help them think about the issues connected with getting intellectual and emotional commitment to objectives.

Hand out the case study from page 19. You will need one copy for each participant.

Allow five minutes for participants to read the case study. Explain that this is background reading – the task will be set after they have read the case study.

When the participants have read the case study, explain that they are about to discuss how Anna should approach her meeting with Pat. Explain that Anna does not have the authority to change any rules such as the way Pat is paid commission. She must work within the current situation.

Use PowerPoint slide 12 to describe Anna’s task and slide 13 to pose the question that the teams are to discuss.

Allow twenty minutes for the discussion then invite a spokesperson from each team to present their conclusions. Use a flipchart to capture the main ideas.

You may wish to use the notes on the case study on page 20 to help you prepare.

Segment 3 – Summary and close

Use PowerPoint slides 14, 15, 16 and 17 and the summary on page 18 to summarize the session.

Hand out copies of the Guide to Setting Performance Objectives that Work from page 14 onward.

Close the session in your normal way.

A guide to setting performance objectives that work

Introduction

The most perfectly constructed objective is useless if it is not actually achieved. This chapter addresses the issues that determine what makes objectives actually work.

Aspirations, aims, objectives and goals

Let’s start by defining what we mean by an objective. Words like aims, objectives, goals and aspirations crop up in modern businesses all the time but they are often undefined. We use the following definitions in this program:

An aspiration is a generalized and undefined wish. Examples include to be famous, to be rich or to be the best in the business.

An aim is a sense of direction. Examples include to keep growing or to scale back.

A goal is a milestone that you reach while you’re pursuing an aim.

An objective is a clearly defined desired outcome within a stated time frame such that an impartial observer can be certain whether it has been achieved.

Here is an example using all the above terms: our aspiration is to be the biggest store in the world. Our immediate aim is therefore to grow and our first goal is to get as large as Macy’s. There will be a great many objectives that contribute to this aim and one might be to raise three million from a stock sale before the end of November.

This program is only concerned with objectives but it is helpful to understand the other terms.

SMART objectives.

The acronym frequently used to characterize an effective objective is S.M.A.R.T. Three of the letters are generally accepted. Effective objectives should be:

Specific

Measurable

Time bounded (i.e. defined in terms of a completion date)

The other two letters are interpreted in various ways:

A: Achievable, Attainable, Aligned, Agreed, and Actionable

R: Relevant, Results-oriented, Realistic and Resourced

There is also a school of thought that Measurable implies Specific (which it surely does) and that the S should stand for Stretching.

In this program, we prefer:

Specific

Measurable

Agreed

Relevant

Time bounded

Regardless of the particular approach you adopt to describe an effective objective, the important ideas are:

• That it should contribute to the wider aims of the organization or team, and;

• That it should be clearly defined to the extent that it is possible to determine whether it has been achieved or not.

• That it should have a time limit imposed upon it.

How to achieve objectives

If an objective is to be achieved, the people who are to achieve it must buy into it. This means that they must:

• Want to achieve the objective, and;

• Believe that they can achieve it.

This is only possible if people are fully engaged in the objective.

Engagement

Engagement is necessary in two ways:

• Intellectual engagement.

• Emotional engagement.

Intellectual engagement

Intellectual engagement requires that the people who are to achieve the objectives understand them clearly and agree with the thinking that led to them.

This means understanding the context for the objectives – where and how they fit into the bigger picture. And it means agreeing that the objectives will help the organization achieve a worthwhile outcome; agreeing that the objectives are possible; and understanding how they are to be achieved.

Emotional engagement

Emotional engagement – wanting to achieve the objectives – can come in different ways for different people in different situations. It can come from:

Personal ambition

A belief in the organization and its aims

Loyalty to a team, to colleagues or to a manager

Fear of losing a job or a promotion

Dislike or fear of failure

A competitive nature

A desire to please

A desire to achieve

Enjoyment of the activities involved in an objective

Enjoyment of a challenge

How the manager gains intellectual engagement

Intellectual engagement comes from involvement in the process to the maximum extent practicable. It includes:

communicating:

• The organizational aims to which the proposed objectives will contribute

• The importance and relevance of the proposed objectives

• The importance and relevance of the individual’s contribution

and it means discussing:

• The individual’s concerns and objections

• The individual’s ideas on what can be achieved

• The individual’s ideas as to how the objectives can be achieved

As a general rule, imposed objectives do not gain intellectual engagement. Objectives that are agreed following discussion and agreement generally do. It is not always wrong to impose objectives but the manager is unlikely to get intellectual engagement if he or she does so.

How the manager gains emotional engagement

The factors that contribute to emotional engagement fall into two categories:

Relationships

Personal traits, fears, desires and beliefs

The relationships that matter here are the relationship with the manager and the relationship with the organization. Does the individual trust and respect the manager? Does the individual trust and respect the organization and believe in what it is trying to do?

The manager can affect these relationships directly. The way he or she manages an individual, and the way he or she behaves, directly affect the way the individual feels about the manager and the organization. The manager’s job will be made much easier if the organization as a whole behaves in a way that engages the trust and respect of the individual and it will be made more difficult if it does not. But the manager is the key player here. We all know examples of teams that have achieved things for an individual leader despite poor organizational behavior and examples of leaders who have failed to achieve success from their teams even in excellent organizations.

Personal traits, fears, desires and beliefs are much more difficult to influence. Hence it is very important at the recruitment stage to try to select people whose personal traits are aligned with the working environment. However, the manager must take these into account if he or she is to gain emotional engagement. The key word here is alignment. A person will only become emotionally engaged in an objective if it is aligned with his or her personal traits, fears, desires and beliefs. So, for example, if an individual believes, as many do, that the organization makes obscene profits for the benefit of fat-cat shareholders, the manager will not get emotional commitment to an objective which results in increased profits.

The manager needs to ensure that each individual’s objectives are aligned with that person’s personal traits, fears, desires and beliefs. This means:

• Allocating objectives to the right individuals, and;

• Agreeing objectives with individuals in ways that respond to their personal traits.

This latter point is not about presentation. We have all experienced the situation in which a manager says something like, “I know you want to be promoted. If you do a good job on this objective you may very well be promoted”. This will usually only fool people once, if at all. The right way involves listening to people and trying to agree with them on an objective that meets their personal needs as well as moving the organization towards its aim.

If you have the right people in the team, it should be possible to agree on objectives that are aligned with what the individuals want and what the organization needs. If you have the wrong people, it will simply prove impossible and so you will never get the emotional engagement required.

The supremacy of Emotional Engagement

For maximum commitment, you need intellectual and emotional engagement. However, intellectual engagement without emotional engagement will not work. Emotional engagement without intellectual engagement will work.

The most powerful example of this is in war. Soldiers will follow a leader they trust and admire without any clear idea of his or her thinking. On the other hand soldiers will not be persuaded by the most logical arguments if they do not trust and admire their leader.

So why do we need intellectual engagement at all? The answer is that people will do a much better job if they are intellectually, as well as emotionally, engaged. For example, they will make much better decisions and choices along the way. Also, there is a relationship between the two forms of engagement. It is possible for a leader to rely purely on relationships from time to time but if that leader does not involve people intellectually then the relationship will suffer and the engagement will fall away.

Summary

• People will not achieve objectives unless they are fully engaged in them

• Full engagement is both intellectual and emotional

• Managers are the key players in gaining this engagement

• Intellectual engagement comes from involving people in:

o The reasons for an objective

o Deciding how it is to be set

o Deciding how it is to be achieved

• Emotional engagement comes from:

o Relationships with the organization, manager and colleagues

o Personal traits, fears, desires and beliefs

• Emotional engagement is more powerful than intellectual engagement

Case study

The company perspective.

Widgets4us is in difficulty. It is making a profit, after taxes, of around 6% of sales and this compares unfavorably with its competitors, who are making around 10%. As a result, the share price of Widgets4us is languishing near an all-time low. If the share price drops much lower, archrival Dominant Widgets will be able to gain control of the company. If that happens, job losses at Widgets4us will be substantial. Dominant Widgets does not need the sales and production facilities of Widgets4us since it has all those already. The chances are that it would close most of the Widgets4us offices and factories and simply add the brand to its own portfolio.

The Directors of Widgets4us have a plan. They have realized that the biggest single cost the company incurs is the cost of giving discounts to the shops that sell its widgets. Widgets4us gives, on average, a 40% discount to its retailers. If this could be reduced to 35%, the extra 5% margin would go straight to the bottom line – in other words, profit before tax would jump to 11% and the problem would be solved. This would only work if the retailers would accept such a reduction, of course. The good news is that researchers have reported back that the average discount in the industry is 35%; so reducing the discount should not cause retailers to drop the line.

The Directors therefore set an immediate goal of reducing the average discount given to retailers to 35%.

The salesperson’s perspective

Pat has been selling Widgets successfully for Widgets4us for four years. He has a mortgage and a young family and values job security. He also needs money. Pat chose Widgets4us because it was an established and secure company. He has read in the press that it has just published profit figures of $75 million, up six percent from last year. That sounds pretty good to Pat and suggests that his job is secure.

Pat is paid on commission. He gets a basic salary but he also gets a percentage of what he sells to the retail trade. He has found a comfortable way of working which yields the level of income he needs. He sells by giving bigger discounts than the salesperson from Dominant Widgets who covers the same area. He knows that every penny off the cost price is a penny to the retailer’s profits so if he can make Widgets4us’ widgets cheaper than those from his competitor, he will get the sale. Of course, he has to sell more to get the same amount of commission, but he is good at his job and he can do this.

The Manager’s perspective

Anna is Pat’s manager. She has received a message from home office instructing her to reduce the amount of discount offered to retailers from 40% to 35%. She is about to meet with Pat to pass this instruction on.

Notes on the case study

The danger

It would be very easy for Anna to agree with Pat that he should reduce discounts to 35% and then for nothing to happen. At the outset, all the pressures on Pat are to leave things exactly as they are. If he reduces the discount, he is likely to lose sales to Dominant Widgets and this will cost him commission. He does not see any justification in the company’s demand to reduce discounts because they are making substantial and growing profits.

There is a real risk that he will agree to reduce discounts and then continue exactly as before.

To change this, Anna has to get him engaged, both intellectually and emotionally.

Intellectual engagement

Anna needs to ensure that Pat understands the reasons for the company’s demand. Your participants should discuss how she is to do this. The obvious way to do this is for Anna to ask Pat to talk about why the company may have made this demand. This is likely to uncover that fact that Pat believes the company is doing fine and that he cannot see any urgent need to change. Anna needs to explain the context of the demand. In particular, she needs to explain the difference between the absolute profitability of the company, which may sound sufficient, and the relative profitability that leaves them vulnerable to a takeover.

Anna needs to communicate the facts and figures to ensure that Pat fully understands the reasons why the company is aiming to reduce discounts.

Emotional engagement

It is possible that emotional engagement may follow from Pat’s understanding of the situation. But it may not. We know that Pat is concerned about job security. Realization that his job is in danger may have a demotivating effect. He may feel that there is nothing he can do to influence forces beyond his control and he may become depressed and ineffective. On the other hand, he may become very fired up and determined by the challenge.

Anna needs to discuss Pat’s hopes and fears and form a view as to his emotional state. If it is positive then she can move on to discuss objectives that will bring the average discount down. If it is negative, she will need to find a way of turning that round. She needs to help Pat see the advantages to him of reducing the average discount. On the face of it, Pat will find it more difficult to sell at a higher price and is likely to lose sales, and therefore commission, to Dominant Widgets. Anna will have to work on Pat’s belief. She has to persuade him that he can sell at the higher price and that he can earn higher commission by doing so. Telling him he can do this is unlikely to work. She should ask him how he would sell without such deep discounts and help him to think this through for himself.

As so often in management, it comes down to effective coaching – helping people to think things through for themselves by using questions. If Pat can be helped to see for himself how he can approach the challenge and meet it, he is likely to change to a more positive emotional state and become engaged in achieving the objective.

It would be wrong to imply that this approach always works. It is possible that Pat is simply not willing to make the changes required. If this happens the manager must be prepared to take effective steps to ensure that the company is not jeopardized and this may mean moving Pat to another role or invoking procedures that could lead to his dismissal.

Outcome of discussions

The important thing for you, as trainer, is that the teams discuss both the intellectual and emotional aspects of Pat’s engagement and that they understand the importance of both if Pat is to achieve any objective that may be agreed with him.

Flexible use of the DVD

You can use the DVD in creative ways of your own without rigidly following the guidance in this manual. This section is intended to give you some ideas as to how to do this.

The menu

The first thing you will see when you play the DVD is the menu. You can get to the menu at any time by using the menu button on your remote control or DVD player. If you are playing the DVD on a computer you will be using DVD player software, such as Windows Media Player. Whichever software you use will have a button on it somewhere which takes you back to the menu.

The menu has the following options:

• Play Movie

• Keisha agrees without engagement

• Page engages Keisha

• Gary agrees without engagement

• Dean engages Gary

• Author’s Comments

This menu structure is designed to give you flexibility in the way you use the DVD. For example, you can use the individual scenes to illustrate specific points or to provoke discussion on particular issues.

The next few pages include analysis of individual scenes with suggestions as to how to use them.

Analysis of individual menu scenes

Keisha agrees without engagement

Select this scene by choosing Keisha agrees without engagement from the menu.

Keisha’s lack of engagement with the issue of the environment becomes apparent right at the start. Paige asks if she has any ideas and Keisha gazes rapidly around before noticing the brochures and seizing upon them as a possible way out.

Keisha then does what many people do when asked about a problem that they do not feel strongly about – she describes the problem and suggests some possible causes but is careful not to suggest any way in which she could personally take responsibility for solving it.

In this case, Keisha suggests that the problem lies with Marketing. Paige suggests that Keisha work with Marketing to reduce the wastage and Keisha suggests a figure for reduction of 80% - a figure that has no reasoning behind it.

Paige suggests an objective that sounds quite clear. But there is no intellectual engagement by Keisha in reaching it or in thinking through how it is to be achieved. And there is certainly no emotional engagement.

If you are showing this scene without having shown the whole story, you could form your participants into teams and ask one of more of the following:

How likely do you think it is that Keisha will achieve her objective?

How do you think that Keisha feels about her objective?

How do you think Paige feels about the outcome of the meeting?

How might Paige have handled the meeting better?

How would you have handled the meeting?

Paige engages Keisha

Select this scene by choosing Paige engages Keisha from the menu.

This scene contrasts with the first one in that Paige succeeds in gaining Keisha’s emotional and intellectual engagement.

Paige begins the discussion by trying to apply the same technique that Dean applied with Gary: she attempts to persuade Keisha of the importance of the company goal. But this does not work. Whereas Gary agreed with the importance of the goal but did not believe in the organization’s motives, Keisha’s reaction shows that she considers that the pressure that her department is under makes it unrealistic to address environmental issues.

You may wish to pause the scene at the point at which Paige says, “So you are saying it can’t be done”. This would be a good point at which to ask your participants: How might Paige proceed from here? Some participants might suggest that Paige should try harder to persuade Keisha, but this is really not the issue. Once it becomes apparent that Keisha is preoccupied with other matters there is really no mileage to be gained by emphasizing the company goals. Paige needs to address Keisha’s concerns. This she does as the scene proceeds. She asks the crucial question: “Leaving aside the environment for a moment, what do you think are the important issues in your department?” This is a first step towards engagement. In order to engage people, you need to talk about what matters to them. Paige’s question gets Keisha’s interest because it addresses things that matter to her.

As Keisha talks about her problems, it occurs to Paige that there might be a way forward that helps Keisha but also helps the organization achieve its objectives – a win-win solution. But Paige is careful not to jump on this solution and try to sell it to Keisha. She is also careful not to manipulate Keisha into agreeing with something that she does not feel fully committed to. Instead, she uses questions to guide Keisha through a thought process that ends with Keisha seeing for herself how to move forward. Even when Keisha asks: “Are you suggesting that we try to persuade people to look at the website…?” Paige replies: “That’s why I’m asking you.”

You may wish to pause the scene at this point and ask your participants why they think Paige has given this reply. What other replies might she have given? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

The advantage of Paige’s approach – to decline to give an opinion and to ask Keisha for hers – is that ownership of the idea remains with Keisha. If Paige had said: That’s exactly what I am suggesting. Why don’t you do that? Then ownership of the idea would have passed to Paige and Keisha’s commitment to it would have been reduced.

By this stage in the scene, Paige has got Keisha fully engaged, both emotionally and intellectually, in the process. However, Keisha presents her proposed objective in terms that address the problem that she has. Paige intervenes to suggest that she present it in terms of the organization’s goal, which is to improve its environmental performance. Keisha sees no conflict and so agrees enthusiastically.

Keisha has now agreed to an objective that she is committed to and so is likely to achieve.

Your participants may take the view that this is all too convenient. That in real life there is not likely to be a solution that engages the individual and contributes to organizational goals. This is an important opportunity to engage your participants in the issues surrounding objective setting. If you have not used the case study on page 19, this could be a good point at which to use it. Or you could divide your participants into teams and ask them to identify a real situation in which there seems to be a conflict between what is important to an individual and what the organization wants to achieve. Invite the teams to discuss ways in which they might handle a discussion of objectives and how they might engage the individual, emotionally and intellectually.

The point is that this is not easy. But the fact remains that unless you gain the intellectual and emotional engagement of the individual, you are unlikely to get their best performance.

Gary agrees without engagement

Select this scene by choosing Gary agrees without engagement from the menu.

It becomes apparent right at the beginning of the discussion that Gary is not engaged in the process. Dean then falls into the trap of making suggestions from the standpoint of not having any expertise. Gary easily shoots them all down.

You could ask your participants: how engaged do you believe Gary to be? What causes you to think this? Gary indicates by his words, his tone of voice and his body language that he is not engaged. You may wish to pause the scene at the point at which Gary says: “But computers aren’t televisions.” Ask your participants to comment on the approach Dean is taking and what might be going on in his mind while he is taking it? Does he know that Gary is not engaged? How is this affecting Dean?

This would be a good point at which to divide your participants into teams and ask them to suggest alternative approaches that Dean might take and the advantages and disadvantages of each of these.

The scene concludes with Gary and Dean agreeing on an objective – to reduce paper use by asking employees not to print out e-mails unnecessarily. You might like to ask your participants:

• Do they think this objective is likely to be successful?

• Does Dean believe this objective is likely to be successful? How can you tell?

• If Dean does not believe that the objective is likely to be successful, why does he agree to it?

• How might Dean and Gary feel after the meeting?

• How might Dean recover the situation?

Dean engages Gary

Select this scene by choosing Dean engages Gary from the menu.

At the outset of the scene, Gary is clearly still hostile to the idea of the company goals. This is apparent from his closed body language. Dean needs a means of breaking through this hostility and engaging Gary. He decides to do this by asking Gary to talk about the way he feels about the overall goal. As an alternative, he could have begun with a hard sell of the company’s position. You may wish to ask your participants what effect this would have likely had on Gary. In all probability, this would have caused Gary to dig his heels in and resist any commitment. By asking about Gary’s feelings he enabled Gary to start to talk frankly about what was going on in his mind.

It becomes apparent to Dean that Gary does not believe in the company’s sincerity. This is a complete block to any chance of gaining Gary’s engagement. Dean has to change Gary’s belief if he is going to succeed. An absolute prerequisite for success is Dean’s own sincerity. If Dean himself is in any way cynical about what the organization is trying to achieve then he will not persuade Gary. This demonstrates the importance of organizational values and beliefs and how they must be shared from the top to the bottom if they are to result in effective action. In this case, Dean demonstrates his own belief in, and commitment to, what the organization is trying to achieve and this passion convinces Gary. There is a point at which Gary says: “You really think they mean it?” and his whole attitude changes. Dean convinces Gary by persuading him of his own belief.

From this point on, Gary is fully engaged in the process. In fact, Dean does not have to do more than follow Gary’s line of thought.

An interesting point is reached when Dean asks for a deadline. A deadline is an opportunity for a manager to create a sense of priority and importance. You might ask your participants: what would the effect have been if Dean had accepted Gary’s initial deadline of three months? You might also ask: what would the effect have been if Dean had imposed a shorter deadline without discussion?

Dean clearly communicates that achieving this goal is a priority but he does not impose a tight deadline. Instead, he encourages Gary to set a short but achievable time frame by questioning his reasoning.

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Gaining Commitment –

Setting Performance Objectives that Work

By Hugh Murray

Advised by

Chris Chisholm

User’s Guide to:

Gaining Commitment

Setting Performance Objectives that Work

Produced and published by:

Newmarket Learning(

A Division of Telephone Doctor, Inc.

30 Hollenberg Ct.

St. Louis, MO 63044

Under exclusive License issued by Scott Bradbury, LTD, UK

Not to be distributed outside North America

Telephone: 314.291.1012

Fax: 314.291.3710

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©Telephone Doctor, Inc.

First published 2008

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