The Importance of Timing
When you set achievable business goals with achievable timelines and incrementally timed milestones you ensure that you are making progress towards your goal – and you make sure that the goal is achievable within the timeframe you have set.
Without good timing you risk missed opportunities, wasted resources, and losing focus on your long-term objectives.
Good timing helps you make informed decisions, stay focused on what matters most, and adjust your course of action as needed.
You are almost always too optimistic
In normal day-to-day life most of us are overly cautious or pessimistic. But give us a project or task to do and suddenly that changes to unbridled optimism. You may not realise that it’s happening but odds are you’d rather promise an earlier date (and then trust that you’d be able to make it) jus to win a sale or please a boss or key stakeholder. And then almost without fail this approach fails to yield the desired results.
Why then do we do this?
Optimism bias is a cognitive bias that can affect the way people plan and estimate the time required to complete a goal or project. It refers to the tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive outcomes and underestimate the likelihood of negative outcomes.
This is normally where you can distinguish between someone with lots of “expensive” goal setting and project management success experience and someone without – the successful veteran will almost always tell you that your timeline is too optimistic because they know the devil is always in the detail.
In the context of goal timelines, unintentional biases can cause the time required to complete a task or a project to be severely underestimated. This leads to poor decisions, unrealistic project timelines, missed deadlines, a lack of contingency planning and cost overruns.
Other biases preventing achievable business goals
Confirmation bias:
You may have a preconceived notion about how long a certain goal or project should take and may only look for data that confirms that belief. You may disregard information that suggests it will take longer than expected, leading to an overly optimistic timeline.
Anchoring bias:
You may hear a proposed timeline for a goal or project and use that as an anchor point for subsequent decision-making. You may then be hesitant to adjust the timeline even if new information suggests that it is unrealistic or needs to be modified.
Hindsight bias:
You may overestimate your team’s ability to accurately predict how long a goal or project will take based on previous experience. You may assume that a similar goal or project will take the same amount of time, even if there are key differences that may impact the timeline. And yes, even very experienced project delivery managers sometimes fall victim to this one.
Availability bias:
You may rely too heavily on information that is easily accessible, such as historical data or assumptions about the goal or project. You may fail to consider other relevant information, such as external factors or unexpected challenges, which could impact the timeline.
Overconfidence bias:
You may overestimate your ability to accurately predict the amount of time a project will take, or your team’s ability to deal with and mitigate challenges that arise. You may assume that you can overcome any obstacle or challenge, and as a result, create a timeline that is overly aggressive and unrealistic.
How do we set achievable business goals?
Here are some practical techniques you can use to evaluate if goals are achievable within a specific timeframe. These techniques are worth using well. A business goal has a specific purpose and when you rally the necessary resources to pursue that goal, it is worth knowing if your resource prioritization is sufficient:
Conduct a feasibility study:
Conducting a feasibility study can be a critical step in ensuring that your goals are achievable and realistic within a defined timeframe. By thoroughly researching the market and reviewing relevant data, you can identify potential challenges, constraints, and risks that could impact the timeline for achieving your goals. Additionally, consulting with experts in your field can provide valuable insights and help you make informed decisions about the feasibility of your goals.
For example, if your goal is to launch a new product, conducting a feasibility study can help you identify potential market competition, production constraints, or supply chain issues that could impact your timeline. By proactively addressing these challenges, you can ensure that your goals are achievable and set a realistic deadline for their completion.
Break down the goal into smaller, more manageable pieces:
It’s essential to break down big goals into smaller pieces to avoid being overwhelmed and to ensure you understand the time and resources required to achieve the desired outcome. By breaking down a goal you can identify the specific tasks and milestones required to achieve it, and this understanding allows for a more accurate timeline to be determined.
For example, if the goal is to launch a new product, breaking it down into smaller parts such as research and development, testing, and marketing will help to create more specific and achievable milestones. This process of breaking down goals into smaller parts not only helps to create a clear path towards achieving the ultimate objective, but it also allows for better tracking of progress and ensures that tasks and milestones are completed efficiently and effectively within the established time frame.
Use historical data:
When setting goals, reviewing past data from similar projects can provide a useful framework for estimating the time and resources required to achieve the goal. However, it’s important to note that historical data should not be relied on blindly. Each new goal or project is unique and presents its own set of challenges and constraints.
For example, if a business wants to launch a new product line, they could look at data from past product launches to see how long it took to get from idea to market. This can help the business to plan more effectively for the new product launch, but it’s important to consider the unique circumstances of the new product, such as changes in the market or new technology that could affect the timeline. Historical data can be a useful tool, but it’s important to use it in combination with other factors to create a realistic and achievable timeline for the new goal.
Seek input from team members:
The best way to get an accurate estimate for the time required to achieve a goal is to get input from the team members responsible for executing the plan. They are the experts in their respective fields and are the most familiar with the specific tasks required to achieve the goal. By involving them in the estimation process and breaking down the goal into smaller tasks, you can get a more accurate estimate of the time required to complete each task.
Furthermore, it helps to ensure that the team members feel valued and included, which is essential to building a positive work culture that values teamwork and collaboration. For example, in a software development project, developers can give their insight on how long each coding task might take to complete, providing a better estimation of the overall time required to complete the project.
Consider external factors:
Changes in the business environment can have an impact on the timeline for achieving a goal. For example, consider a new regulation introduced that requires additional steps for processing customer data. This could impact the timeline for a project to launch a new product or service, as it may require changes to the processes or systems.
Therefore, it is essential to be aware of external factors and their potential impact on the project timeline, and businesses must build in sufficient flexibility to be able to adapt to any changes. This can help prevent delays in achieving the goal, and ensure the project remains aligned with business priorities. As with all goals, it’s important to set a realistic timeline and to monitor progress regularly, so that any necessary adjustments can be made along the way.
Evaluate the risks:
When setting a goal, it is important for businesses to evaluate the risks that come with it. This evaluation can help identify potential roadblocks that could delay or hinder the achievement of the goal. By understanding these risks, businesses can adjust their plans and allocate additional resources, as needed, to ensure the goal is achievable within the set timeframe. For example, when introducing a new product, there could be risks associated with market acceptance, competition, production issues, and more.
By assessing these risks and considering potential delays, businesses can make informed decisions to ensure the product launch stays on track and is completed within the set timeframe.
Do my goals have good, achievable timelines?
This is always a very difficult question to answer as you can only evaluate the answer to this question using the information you have available. That being said, if we ask an experienced, successful project manager to answer that question he or she would provide us with a checklist that has equal focus on the project goal and the project process. It would look something like this:
- Is the project scope well-defined and achievable?
- Are project timelines realistic and achievable within the available resources and budget?
- Has the project been broken down into manageable phases and tasks?
- Are there clear deliverables and milestones that can be tracked and measured?
- Are all stakeholders and team members aligned on the project goals and objectives?
- Is there a clear project communication plan and channels of communication established?
- Is there a process in place for monitoring and managing risks, issues, and changes throughout the project?
Positive answers to these questions will not only indicate that a realistic timeline has been set, given the current information and reality, but also that the team are aware enough that changes may occur and have processes to deal with such changes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, setting a timeline for achieving business goals is critical for success. The right goal, set with a well-defined timeline, can make all the difference in achieving success. Breaking down a goal into smaller, incremental steps, each with its own timeline, can make the task more manageable and provide measurable progress markers along the way. But also – remain flexible when things happen that changes the landscape and your ability to meet the timeline.
Don’t just dream of success – time your goals well and make them a reality.
