Jan 8 – Measure to Get the Treasure
Jan 8 – What gets measured gets done. When setting goals, make sure you know the measurements that indicate success for you.
More…..
In every Cheetah course we have our students follow a very detailed schedule and then track how well they did following their schedule. It isn’t just planning the schedule that creates value – it’s also knowing that you’re going to be accountable to measuring how well you did following the schedule that helps people stay on task with meeting their course schedule. Success is measured one milestone at a time. Think about how good you feel when you check off things on your “to do” lists!
In Cheetah’s classroom courses, our coaches are responsible for making sure the course stays on schedule (they also measure their performance on the class schedule, and it’s the topic of many “lessons learned” discussions). The students do have skin in the game, as if they don’t follow the schedule set by the coaches, they have a much more difficult time passing the PMP exam. And they also measure their performance to the schedule at the end of every day in the class. To be successful with their end goal of passing the PMP exam, both students and teachers measure their performance every step of the way by tracking how well they are doing on the baseline and subject matter exams, how well they are doing with their mind mapping, and how well they are doing following the peak performing mind protocols.
But in Cheetah’s online courses, the students create their own schedules for doing all the course work at the beginning of the course. As part of every module, they measure their performance with their schedule. While this is just the way “things” work at Cheetah, since we do after all teach Project Management, it also helps ensure our students complete their online courses.
The measure of success in taking a course is not that you registered for the course. It is that you developed some new capability you did not have before. And the way to do that is to actually DO the course. This is why we have our students create their schedules, as we want them to be successful. It was interesting to find out that other schools have a completion problem with their online students, since we have not had that problem. We were wondering: why? It’s the schedule and the requirement the students measure how well they are doing on the schedule they set for themselves. It helps create intrinsic motivation and excitement for doing the work required to complete the course. When you can measure your success one activity completed at a time and you take time to celebrate your completion, then you feel more successful. Success breeds success – one celebration at a time.
So if you want to assure your success with any goal, set up a plan for achieving that goal. Then, set up and take measurements to track how well you are doing with meeting your plan. Watch what happens……. (and this is why we are so in love with Project Management at Cheetah Learning). Create your measurements and create your success.
