From Good Intentions to Great Results: The Importance of Accountability – Why successful teams set goals, measure progress, and adjust along the way
Every construction project starts with good intentions. Finish on time. Stay within budget. Work safely. Communicate well. Solve problems quickly. Build a strong team.
Who could argue with any of that?
The challenge is turning those good intentions into something the team can manage. After all, “communicate well” sounds great on a partnering charter. Six months later, when emails are piling up, RFIs are aging, and three people are waiting for the same decision, it gets a little harder to define.
That is where goals come in.
Clear, shared goals give the owner, designer, contractor, subcontractors, and other partners a common definition of success. And when priorities compete — and they will — the team can come back to: What decision best supports the goals we agreed to achieve together?
Define What Success Looks Like
A good goal answers a simple question: How will we know if we are succeeding?
Compare these:
Good intention: Communicate effectively.
Goal: Achieve a team communication score of 4.0 or better on a five-point scale.
Good intention: Make timely decisions.
Goal: Make critical project decisions within five business days of receiving complete information.
Good intention: Resolve issues quickly.
Goal: Resolve 90% of project issues at the lowest possible level within 10 business days.
Good intention: Stay on schedule.
Goal: Achieve 90% of six-week look-ahead commitments each month.
See the difference? One sounds good. The other gives you something to shoot for.
Strong goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For construction teams, I add one more — Shared. Because a goal that belongs to only one organization is their goal. A goal the whole team creates and commits to becomes “Our Goal.”
“Great results come when teams give those intentions a target, keep score, and adjust together along the way.”
Goals Need Accountability
Setting goals during partnering is the easy part. Keeping them alive when the project is moving at full speed takes a little more work.
The OrgMetrics Construction Scorecard gives teams a consistent way to measure project performance against the goals they established together. Rather than relying on anecdotes or waiting until a problem becomes obvious, the scorecard creates a regular feedback loop. Team members evaluate key areas of performance, identify trends and discuss where results are meeting expectations and where attention is needed. Most importantly, the scorecard turns accountability into a team process rather than a blame process.
A communication score of 4.3 tells you something. A drop from 4.3 to 3.6 tells you much more.
Something changed.
That is the cue to get curious: What happened? What is getting in our way? What should we change? Who needs to be involved? Who will take the lead?
Then comes the important part — do something about it. The next scorecard tells you whether it worked. Over time, this creates a pretty simple rhythm: Set the goal. Measure performance. Talk about it. Take action. Measure again.
No goal is especially useful sitting on a partnering charter gathering dust. Its value comes from what the team does with it. When goals are clear, measurable and regularly reviewed, they become practical tools for managing the project. That is accountability at its best — regularly asking Where are we going? How are we doing? What do we need to adjust?
Good intentions are a great place to start. Great results come when teams give those intentions a target, keep score and adjust together along the way.
~ Cinda
Cinda Bond, MIPI, has been an OrgMetrics partnering facilitator for more than 10 years. She has facilitated more than 500 sessions for teams throughout the country. She also collaborates with engineering and construction teams to develop large documents containing hundreds of pages for construction contracts and proposals.
For more information please contact Cinda Bond, CindaBond@Orgmet.com / (925)640-9007 (cell), or OrgMetrics RobReaugh@Orgmet.com / (925)449-8300