Pathways to Success

Goal setting is important technique in the business adventurer’s toolbox. Goals are essentially the steps required to achieve your vision. Goals can consist of two types; ‘have to’ goals and ‘want to’ goals and there is a critical difference between them. The most effective goals are set by us rather than imposed by others. This way they are related to things you 'want to' achieve rather than those you 'have to'.

In order to reach your goals it is useful to use milestones. In essence, milestones are something that must be achieved in order to take you closer towards achieving your goal; in other words they are stepping-stones. Sometimes milestones must be achieved in a certain order to take you in that direction; at other times you will have a choice.

Having set milestones it is necessary to ensure that they are met. It is not always effective to wait until the end of a task to evaluate. A review approach I have adopted on expeditions, for which I have coined the phrase Tent-Time©, is a way to manage progress towards the completion of milestones.

Using Tent-Time©, you can improve the way in which the task is carried out and managed before it is completed. It enables you, and your team, to learn from mistakes and ensure they are not repeated in future tasks.

In simple terms, Tent-Time© is time out to review feasibility and performance, listen to feedback, recognise success, learn from failure and modify plans accordingly. It is important that planning allows for Tent-Time© to take place and in the most objective manner possible.

Tent-Time© is the basis on which team members understand how they are performing and what areas they need to improve on, what is going on within the team and how they are contributing to wider team goals and objectives.

Tent-Time© provides evidence to justify a pathway to success with potential setbacks and difficulties readily highlighted. Individual awareness and mutual understanding increases and communications improve. The effectiveness and efficiency of team progress is monitored and team cohesion and confidence is reinforced through recognition of progress.