Walking goals and delivery

My Friday Thought: Setting a monthly walking goals has many parallels to a delivery target.

During the month of March I took on the 100 miles in March for Mind challenge. With more than one in four people in the UK who will experience a mental health problem this year and working in an area where burn-out is very real, it felt that a great challenge to get behind and raise money for a great charity.

I set myself two targets, the 100 miles, but also 200km if I managed to get more than a set value in donations. I did this as a set a realistic goal that I knew I was able to achieve. I set daily targets which would allow me to keep on track (6.5km per day), tracking on progress on my daily distance board, aligned to where I should be on what day. Knowing I wouldn't always be able to achieve my goal (spending a week in London caused those days to drop) when I felt able to do more I pushed so that I allowed for set backs in my plan.

What has this got to do with delivery?

• Setting an unrealistic delivery goal will no doubt lead to failure, annoyance and stress for everyone involved
• Not having markers on progress, prevent you understanding if you are able to complete within the timescale you have suggested until too late
• Not providing capabilities/time for things to go wrong (because they will) will add pressure and likely failure to meet your delivery timescales

Delivery is much like real life and very like my walking challenge, ok IT unknowns tend to happen more often and typically are harder to overcome, but the process is the same.

What to find out more: https://www.mind.org.uk