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Step 2: Develop Objectives
Completion requirements
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The next step in decision-making is to decide what you want to do – your goals and desired results – before creating alternative solutions. Developing goals before alternative counteracts the tendency to choose only those goals that fit your pre-selected solutions.
Objectives come from questions such as:
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Question |
Example |
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What factors should I consider? |
Time Location Approvals |
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What results do I want? |
Efficiency Safety Recognition Saving Money Satisfaction High moral |
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What resources are available? |
People Equipment Skills Budget Materials Knowledge |
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What restrictions are needed? |
Law Standards Ethics Policy Values |
Get help from others in writing out your list of goals. Include all-important items that are considerations in making the decision. The sounder data you have here, the better your final decision will be.
Must and Want Goals (Objectives)
When you finish writing down the goals, the next step is to decide which of them are needed (“must” objectives), and which are desired (“want” goals). Then when you develop alternative solutions, each solution must meet the required “must” goals or it is not acceptable. This will save time later by preventing you from considering alternatives that do not meet the required goals.
Establish “must” goals by looking at basic needs such as budget, time, policy, rules, or law. For example,” must” goals might be statements such as “The fourth-quarter budget clearly restricts us to a maximum of R24 000 for that project,” or “The plan must absolutely be implemented by the 5th month of next year.”
A “must” is:
- Important to the individual writing the goal, and
- Quantifiable to everyone.
In other words, everyone would agree on whether the ‘must’-objective is a measurable statement.
Although the budget is not to exceed R24 000, it would be great to bring the project in under budget and less time. Or even though it must be completed by January 5th, it would be nice to have it in less time.
These are “want”-objectives. “Want” goals are often comparisons, such as low cost, least time, largest, nicest, best, biggest, etc. A goal may be extremely important, but if it cannot be measured, then it would still be a “want”.
Note that “must” goals are not desirable unless they are necessary. There is a human tendency to put in lots of “must” goals, but they do restrict alternatives. The more “must” goals, the fewer options are available.
Before continuing to the last two steps create alternatives and analyse risk, let us look at another example that will help tie the process together. Read the following case study, noting what you feel are the important goals in the situation.