Goal Alignment and a Busy Quarter

As a lawyer, I learned very early in my career about the importance of managing expectations. Managing expectations is essentially a form goal alignment. If all parties agree on what is the goal of a project, then expectations are clear and realistic. I have noted in the past the prevalence of group work during your MBA. You will likely have also noted my comments of the hectic 2nd Quarter of The Merage School. Any business school you go to will challenge you with at least one quarter that is overly demanding on your time. It is during these times that you will fully understand the importance of constant goal alignment.

This is more from my observations of the experiences of my class in general than my group specifically, but goal alignment becomes critical as your group faces stresses from multiple directions. Generally, most business schools expect MBAs to work in teams and they provide training on how to build a cohesive teams. So, we all know that if two team members have different expectations on how a project should be completed, then there will be trouble (especially if the team performs below one person's expectations). Therefore, most teams start by identifying the goal at the beginning of a project. There comes a point where the goals are often the same for the team, so the goal becomes unspoken. This is where trouble can happen.

If your team experiences a trying quarter with projects coming at you from all directions then each member goes into survival mode. Not only do they need to satisfy their team mates, they must keep in mind their person needs for individual projects and exams and extracurricular activities. It is during this busy time that the problem of simply assuming the same goal applies rears its ugly head. Some members will be better than others at handling the time management demands. Others will be stretched very thin and come dangerously close to burnout by the end of the quarter. It is at this point that individual goals for group projects change as each team member adjusts to get through the quarter.

Now, modifying goals is not a problem in itself. It is where it overlaps a period where goals become understood and unstated. Now, one can argue that if a team has a policy of keeping the same unstated goal, then the person who needs to modify it should speak up and talk about why he/she needs to change it. Often, they will not for many reasons such as personal embarrassment or they forgot about goal alignment in the chaos. That is why it is important that the team together, before every major project, clarify what they want to achieve from this project. Do you want to be the best in class or do you just want it done and shoot for the average? The extra steps of doing a mundane task of clarifying goals before the project will go a long way to avoiding future conflict.

Bottom Line is that if you do not take those extra steps to clarify goals before the project, it will be hard for you to criticize your team mates for not meeting your internal goals. Another great reason why MBA school is fantastic for teaching you so much more beyond the actual subject matter of the class.