Are you capable?

We HAVE REACHED THAT TIME OF year when many of us are finalizing our improvement goals for next year. How do you set your goals? What process do you use? Unfortunately, the prevailing business process involves looking at last years performance levels, typically averages, and adding or deducting a percentage from them to establish the new goal. From a personal perspective, our process is even more basic: we simply set a goal and hope we make it. The process used to set business goals and personal goals should be the same. A clearly defined strategy should be used to set a foundation for goal importance and focus, and current process capability levels should be used to predict what levels of performance are possible in the absence of any fundamental systems change. Once we have defined what we are up against and what we want to achieve, we can then identify those system changes we are willing to make in the coming year. The projected impact and timing of these changes can be used to project realistic shifts in performance or goals that we can expect to achieve. You have probably been frustrated by being held accountable for reaching a level of process improvement and performance that you don't have the time, manpower or financial resources to reach. You have probably also wondered why so many of us fail to achieve the resolutions we set for ourselves each year. While it would be convenient to blame these failures on a lack of desire, willpower or discipline, the true answer is much more process-based than behavior-based. Our processes are simply not capable of reaching the goals we set for them unless we fundamentally change them, and that is where the true failure lies. Process capability is not under- stood. The true meaning of process capability specification width versus process width did not really begin to make sense until my last full-time job as a plant manager. I became so absorbed with trying to manage my plant that I lost the physical and mental ability to run long distances. Attempting to achieve performance goals at work was compromising my ability to achieve personal goals away from work. Something had to change. Fortunately, as I tried to improve my plant, 1 was forced to use the tools I had taught to others in previous jobs. Consistent tool use, as opposed to tool awareness, led me to appreciate the value of fundamental systems change. I learned the value of designing supervisor jobs so that time for projects, learning and coaching was available. Attempting to regain at least some semblance of my

running prowess taught me that without personal systems change; I would not begin to move back toward the level of performance I once achieved. The central theorem of this story is simple: Don't set goals that extend beyond the current process limits unless Process capability is not understood. You are clear on how you are going to change the system to make this happen. The two corollaries to this theorem are dont set goals for processes that you have not yet defined control limits for, and strongly consider the current width of a given process when you set goals for it. Most organizations dont even begin to consider these rules when they set performance goals. They just raise the bar and ask you to jump higher. Are you capable of giving this alternate approach to goal setting a try in the coming year, or will you simply do as you have done in the past and expect different results? Your answers to these questions will determine your personal and workfocused success in the coming year. =Kevin McManus is a performance improvement coach based in Rainer, Ore., and a 28-yearmemberoflIE.Hehaswritten work- books about personal and team effectiveness. McManus is an alumni examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Reach