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 What is a "result statement?
Question submitted by T. Lapham.
When TMI, USA teaches its Managing Personal Performance (MPP) classes
with the Time Manager system, we encourage our participants to write a
one sentence "results statement" for each Key Area. If you have never done
this, it's an excellent exercise to do, because it will help you to focus
on what you need to do to achieve results in each Key Area. In the most
fundamental way, writing results statements enables you to be strategic.
For example, three participants in Janelle Barlow's MPP wrote the following
result statements for their Staff Key Areas. 1) To train and develop staff
to achieve optimum results as a team. 2) To grow the next generation of
leaders for my company. 3) To develop staff so they are more independent,
adhere to standards and behave as a team.
 These are not goals, because they are not
specific, and they don't have deadlines. They are more like a mission statement
for the Staff Key Area, and we call them Result Statements. If you look
carefully at all three statements, you can quickly see that each person
would manage their staff differently to achieve the stated result. For
example, the first result statement places a heavy emphasis on team relationships.
The second statement emphasizes development, specifically of leadership
skills. The third result statement places an emphasis on three standards:
staff independence, adherence to standards, and team interdependence. I
cannot imagine the three managers behaving in very similar ways--because
each of them wants to achieve quite different results. Incidentally, that
last result statement was written by a Chef in a hotel kitchen. You can
imagine how independence is necessary for culinary creativity, and yet
standards have to be maintained, and when assembling an entire meal team
interdependence is crucial. Let me carry this one step further. Once the
result statement is defined, the Chef might then list the following tasks
to achieve his stated result: 1) Staff training plan (individualized for
each staff member so strengths are developed and weaknesses are minimized
as regards performance, creativity and team interactions) 2) Team building
experiences (designed to create interdependence within the team) 3) Staff
evaluation (specific measurements of defined performance standards) 4)
Staff rewards (recognition for creativity, team spirit and performance)
At TMI, USA, we can't think of a better way
to be truly strategic than to go through this exercise if you have never
done so. We encourage you to write your result statement at the top of
each of your Key Area pages, so you can see it on a weekly basis when you
review your Key Areas. Then list all the tasks you need to accomplish to
achieve this result. When you are finished asked yourself this question:
If I do all these tasks (and, of course, do them well), will I achieve
my stated result? If the answer is yes, you have a well-defined Key Area.
Thanks for this question. We'll write more about Result Statements in future
months if our readers want us to. Please let us know your interest in this
topic.
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