In a comment on my entry on my 2023 goals, friend of the blog and PEZ master John Wilder asked the question "Which (goals) are the most important"?
It is a fair question, as my list is fairly long. For once, I actually have an answer.
Some years ago I was introduced to the idea of a CARVER in Richard Machowicz's book Unleash The Warrior Within (2002 edition). Machowicz was a Navy SEAL and adapts the mindset and tools to average lives like my own (as a note, I have read more than one book authored by a Navy SEAL; I still find Machowicz's book very approachable). CARVER is an acronym (comments taken from Machowicz's book):
Criticality: How vital to this is the overall mission? If I hit this target, is going to contribute to achieving ultimate victory?
Accessibility: How easily can I get to this target? How easy is it for me to hit this target?
Recognizability: How easy for me is it to find this target? How easy or difficult is it for me to recognize the things I need to do in order to knock down this target down?
Vulnerability: What is the degree of force needed to destroy the target? Can it be easily finished within a certain time frame? What is the extent of the resources to knock down this target down?
Effect on the Overall Mission: To what degree will the destruction of this target affect my enemy? How much closer will this get us to ending the war?
Return on Effort (Recuperability): Can the enemy recover from the destruction of this target? If so, how long will it take? What is the return on the initial investment of resources, and when will I see it?
One takes each of these categories and ranks them from low/hard to achieve or recognize (1) to high/easy to achieve or recognize (5). A simple total at the end of the matrix and voila! One has a ranking system.
It is obviously not designed for war in this case, and a couple of caveats have to be applied. The first is that one has to be ruthlessly honest about the assessment of each goal and each item. The second is that one has to accept a certain amount of "fluidity" in the assessment; these are at best your own assessments that may change.
This is a sample of what my template looks like.
Back in my engineering days, we were often put in meetings with a wish list of goals given to us to accomplish. We would use a similar ranking system to determine which was the low hanging fruit to attack first. It really helped in the decision making process and helped to focus our efforts as a whole.
ReplyDeleteEd, decision making tools are often hit and miss with me (and in Project Management, we are exposed to a plethora of them). For some reason, this one has really stuck with me: it is understandable and actionable.
DeleteI think it's effectiveness, or at least the engineering one, is because each specific box if fairly easy to come up with a number. I think many of ours only have two options for each box. But by the time you sum up all the numbers in a row, the answers themselves can be quite different than what I would have initially guessed. It allows one to focus on manageable chunks versus trying to guestimate everything all at once.
DeleteEd, one item that is often used on things like risk matrices is incrementing the numbers up significantly so instead of having 1-5 you have 1, 5, 10, 15, 25. This makes the differences stand out more.
DeleteThis seems like a very logical and useful way to approach a goal list.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, for some reason it has really been useful to me (not all such items are). I will say my biggest challenge is accurately portraying the numbering in the categories. Sometimes what I "feel" something should be and what something actually is are quite different.
Delete(Smiles)
ReplyDeleteJohn, even I can get there, given enough time and prompting.
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