Effective Project Teams: The Importance of Goal Setting
By Kelly J. Hill, MS CRDSA, Director, Project & Account Management
In the Part 1 we discussed the characteristics of highly collaborative project teams. In addition to team collaboration, it is also important to discuss the need for team members to have shared goals and objectives.
Project team goals are intended to act like a roadmap outlining the project results you are looking for and the action steps required to complete the work. Without a shared goal even though team members may be motivated, collaborative and hard-working they may be headed in different directions with each trying to accomplish a different result. This can lead to multiple project delays, team member frustration, project re-work and may ultimately result in missing the end goal entirely.
One of the tools we use at MMS to aid in project goal setting is the Project Summary Sheet (PSS), where all project deliverables along with their target completion dates are listed. It is the duty of a pharma project manager to complete this tool. The PSS tells us where we are headed and also provides us with a high level description of how we should get there (by using client template and style guide, completing full or partial QC, etc). Where projects are more complex and additional detail is needed, other project documents may be created to further detail the team goals.
Teams come together much more quickly when they have meaningful and attainable, but challenging, goals that each team member is committed to achieving. If your project goals, requirements or path is not clear be sure to ask questions internally in your organization. The Project Lead and Project Manager, with inputs from the sponsor where necessary, can help to ensure that you and the rest of the team are all headed in the right direction.
Consider these SMART goals to help develop you own roadmap.
SMART Goal Format
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S
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Specific – What exactly are we looking to deliver?
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M
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Measurable – How will we know when we reach our goal?
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A
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Attainable – We are able to reach this goal (possibly with a stretch)
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R
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Relevant – Why is it important to complete this work as described and within the timeframe requested?
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T
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Time Bound – When should our goal be reached?
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What else do you do as a pharma project manager do to communicate goals effectively with your team?
To view the first part of this discussion click here.