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The First Secret: One Minute Goals

WHEN the young man arrived at Teresa Lee’s office, she removed her reading glasses and smiled. “I hear you’ve been to see our Manager. He’s quite a guy, isn’t he?” “He seems to be.”

“Did he suggest you talk with us about the way he manages?” “He sure did.”

Teresa said, “It’s amazing how well it works. I’m still surprised at how little time he needs to spend with me since I’ve learned how to do my job.” “Is that true?”

“You’d better believe it is. I hardly ever see him now.” “You mean you don’t get any help from him?” asked the young man.

“Not as much as I did when I started. Although he does spend time with me at the beginning of a new task or responsibility. That’s when he and I set our One Minute Goals.” “One Minute Goals? What are they?”

“That’s the first of the Three Secrets to One Minute Management,” Teresa said.

“Three Secrets?” the young man asked, wanting to know more.

“Yes,” said Teresa. “Setting One Minute Goals is the beginning of One Minute Management. You see, in most organizations when you ask people what they do and then ask their boss, all too often you get two different answers.

“In fact, in some organizations I’ve worked in, any relationship between what I thought my job responsibilities were and what my boss thought they were was purely coincidental. And then I would get in trouble for not doing something I didn’t even think was my job.” “Does that ever happen here?” asked the young man.

“No!” Teresa said. “It doesn’t happen here. Our Manager works with us to make it clear what our responsibilities are and what we are being held accountable for.” “Just how does he do that?” the young man wanted to know.

“More efficiently than ever,” Teresa said with a smile. “In fact, these days I call him the New One Minute Manager, because he’s doing things in new ways that are even more effective now.” “How so?”

She explained, “For example, instead of setting our goals for us, he listens to our input and works side-by-side with us to develop them. After we agree on our most important goals, each is described on one page.

“He feels that a goal and its performance standard—what needs to be done and by what due date—should take no more than a paragraph or two to express, so it can be read and reviewed in about a minute.

“Once we’ve written the goals out concisely, it’s easy to look at them often and stay focused on what’s important.

“Finally, I e-mail my goals to him and keep copies, so everything is clear and we can both periodically check my progress.” “If you have a one-page description for every goal, wouldn’t there be a lot of pages for each person?” “No, there really aren’t. We believe in the 80/20 rule. That is, 80% of your really important results will come from 20% of your goals. So we set One Minute Goals on only that 20%—that is, our key areas of responsibility—maybe three to five goals. Of course, in the event a special project comes up, we set special One Minute Goals.” She continued, “Since each goal can be read in about a minute, we are encouraged to take a moment every now and then to look at what we’re doing and see if it matches our goals.

“If not, we adjust what we’re doing. It helps us succeed sooner.” The young man observed, “So you look to see if you’re doing what’s expected, rather than waiting for your manager to tell you.” “Yes.”

“So, in a way, you’re managing yourself.”

“Exactly,” Teresa said with a nod.

“And it’s easier,” she added, “because we know what our job is. Our Manager makes sure we know what good performance looks like because he shows us. In other words, expectations are clear to both of us.

“However, many of us work remotely, and our Manager isn’t always able to show us in person, but he does so in other ways.” “Can you give me an example?”

“Sure,” said Teresa. “One of my goals was to identify a problem and come up with a solution that, when implemented, would turn the situation around.

“Early on, when I started to work here, I was traveling and spotted a problem that needed to be solved, but I didn’t know what to do. So I called him. When he answered the phone, I said, ‘I have a problem.’ Before I could get another word out, he said, ‘Good! That’s what you’ve been hired to solve.’ Then there was dead silence on the other end of the phone.

“I didn’t know what to say. I eventually sputtered, ‘But, but . . . I don’t know how to solve this problem.’ “’Teresa,’ he said, ‘one of your goals for the future is for you to identify and solve your own problems. But since you are new, let’s talk. So tell me what the problem is.’ “I then tried to describe the problem the best I could. But I was all over the place, feeling nervous and defensive.

“My Manager put me at ease when he gently said, ‘Just tell me what people are doing, or not doing, that’s causing the problem.’ “Hearing that made me think about the real problem instead of myself and I described the problem the way he asked me to.

“He said, ‘That’s good, Teresa! Now tell me what you would like to be happening.’ “’I’m not sure I know,’ I said.

“’Then call me back when you know,’ he said.

“I just froze in amazement for a few seconds. I didn’t know what to say. He mercifully broke the silence.

“’If you can’t tell me what you’d like to be happening,’ he said, ‘you don’t have a problem yet. You’re just complaining. A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening.’ “Being a quick learner, I suddenly realized I knew what I wanted to be happening. After I told him, he asked me to talk about what may have caused the discrepancy between the actual and the desired.

“After I did that, he said, ‘Now, what are you going to do about it?’ “’Well, I could do A,’ I said.

“’If you did A, would what you want to happen actually happen?’ he asked.

“’No,’ I said.

“’Then you have a lousy solution. What else could you do?’ he asked.

“’I could do B,’ I said.

“’But if you do B, will what you want to happen really happen?’ he countered again.

“’No,’ I realized.

“’Then that’s also a bad solution,’ he said. ‘What else can you do?’ “I thought about it for a couple of minutes and said, ‘I could do C. But if I do C, what I want won’t happen, so that’s not a solution, is it?’ “’Right. You’re starting to come around,’ he joked. ‘Is there anything else you could do?’ “Feeling relieved, I laughed and said, ‘Maybe I could combine some of these solutions.’ “’That sounds worth trying,’ he said.

“’In fact, if I do A this week, B next week, and C in two weeks, I’ll have it solved. That’s fantastic. Thanks so much. You solved my problem for me.’ “’I did not,’ he insisted. ‘You solved it yourself. I just asked you the kinds of questions you can ask yourself in the future.’ “I knew what he had done, of course. He’d shown me how to solve problems so that I could do it on my own.” “Is that what you mean by seeing what good performance looks like?” the young man asked.

“Yes. My Manager shows me how to do it so I can understand it and do it myself.

“Then at the end of the call, he said, ‘You’re good, Teresa. Remember that the next time you have a problem.’” Teresa leaned back in her chair and looked as if she were reliving her first encounter with the one minute Manager.

“I remember smiling afterward. I realized what he was doing meant he wouldn’t have to participate so much with me in the future.” “That’s because you could learn to solve problems better yourself.” “Yes. He wants everyone on our team to enjoy doing our jobs better and sooner.” The young man thought for a moment and said, “I can see how this would make the organization more responsive, with more people on the team able to act on their own.

“Do you mind if I write a brief summary of what I’ve learned so far?” Teresa responded, “I think that’s a good idea.”

Then the young man wrote:

ONE MINUTE GOALS WORK WELL WHEN YOU:

1. Plan the goals together and describe them briefly and clearly. Show people what good performance looks like.

2. Have people write out each of their goals, with due dates, on a single page.

3. Ask them to review their most important goals each day, which takes only a few minutes to do.

4. Encourage people to take a minute to look at what they’re doing, and see if their behavior matches their goals.

5. If it doesn’t, encourage them to re-think what they’re doing so they can realize their goals.

The young man showed his summary to Teresa.

“That’s it!” she said. “You’re a fast learner.” “Thank you,” he said, feeling good about himself.

“If setting One Minute Goals is the First Secret to becoming a One Minute Manager, can I ask what the other two are?” Teresa grinned, looked at her watch, and said, “Why don’t you ask Paul Trenell? You’re scheduled to see him after we finish, aren’t you?” He was impressed that Teresa already knew his schedule. He rose to shake her hand and said, “Yes, and thank you so much for your time.” “You’re welcome. Time is one thing I have a lot more of now. As you can probably tell, I’m becoming a New One Minute Manager myself.” “You mean you notice what’s changing, and look for new ways to apply the Three Secrets?” “Yes. Adapting to change is one of my main goals.”