Goals and Objectives

Goals and Objectives

By Catalina9

Both a safety policy and a goal-achievement plan are prerequisites for establishing SMS goals and objectives. A policy is general long-term statements representing global visions to lead an organization in a desirable direction. Goals must define where they fit into the policy and objectives must define how they support the goals.

Goals are the specifics of what you want to achieve in your organization, including timelines. Goals are the What, Why and When of an enterprise.

Objectives define strategies, processes or implementation steps to attain identified goals. Each objective is one specific building block of the goal, it’s measurable with a purpose, and have a defined completion date. Most important;’ objectives are compiled within a project plan to get all the ducks in a row. Each objective comes with a What, Why, Who, When (initiated) Where, How, When (completion) until completed.

Effective goal setting strategy.

Goal setting is in concept a simple process. It is to write down on a piece of paper what you want to achieve. A goal is not the same as a wish. Goals are what you can visualize will have an impact on your behavior to guide you in the direction of your project plan. A goal is a behavioral change tool, while a wish is a reason to accept failure.

Goal setting for airports and airlines is more than just selecting from the hazard registry. Goals must be personal, and they are made personal by writing them down and reviewed daily. Goals must be specific and attainable. A goal to be safe is not a specific goal and therefore not attainable. An unattainable goal leads to confusion, errors and obstructions. Safety is subjective unless defined within a structured system, such as a Safety Management System.  Some time ago I did a survey about safety outside of a structured system with a result that safety is a subjective opinion and will vary with the candidate’s background.

Success is the domino effect of goal achievements

An effective Safety Management System demands that there are processes in place for setting goals for the improvement of aviation safety and for measuring the attainment of those goals. The goal-setting process is not an option but a requirement for an enterprise to maintain their success. You didn’t become a successful airline or airport just by luck, but by project solutions quality leadership. Successful airline and airport operations happens by strategic planning and not by chance. The travelling public, business travellers, on-demand airline operations and scheduled airlines need to know how your airport or airline is set apart from any other operator and why the public prefer you as their travel supplier or travel destination. Goal setting is the master skill of success. The more you set goals and work towards them the more successful your operations becomes. Personal success equals business success and is a result of knowing exactly what you want and determine the price you will have to pay to achieve it. This price to pay could be to conform to regulatory compliance and experience finding-free regulatory inspections. Yes, there is a price to pay to ensure regulatory compliance.  One price to pay is to take time to set your goals, write your goals down and review your goals daily. Someone said that to be successful you must work ½ a day, and it’s up to you to pick what 12 hours shift you’ll take. The price of setting goals could be to get up an hour earlier than normal every day to review your goals. 

A goal without an achievement plan is a lighter without a spark

Airports and airlines have a database of hazards, which is the hazard registry. Selecting from the registry is a wonderful goal-making decision tool. The question then becomes if you should select the most frequent reported hazard, the most severe outcome of a hazard, the most likely hazard, a hazard that has an adverse effect on revenue or a hazard that affects customer’s safety. There are a million hazards to choose from and you are expected to select only one. The path of least resistance process is to pick the most reported hazard. However, if this hazard is not relevant to operations the process has become a checkbox exercise. The goals setting task is not what to pick from the hazard registry, but to select a goal that will guide the enterprise to achieve a successful Safety Management System.

When your goals are written in stone, the next step is to develop project plans for objectives supporting your goals and involving all personnel assigned customer service tasks. A ticket agent is a customer service task, your website is a customer service task, clearing the runway for snow is a customer service task and assessing aeronautical obstructions is a customer service task. Your goal is the hub of a wheel, while the spokes leading away from the hub are your objectives. Each objective must be designed to a defined limit. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just define what load the wheel is designed to carry.

Catalina9