Objectives and Tasks in a Consulting Program: What Do You Measure?

A client completed ten out of twelve tasks. Did he improve? No one can answer from this number. Accomplishing tasks is an indicator of commitment, and achieving a goal is professional judgment — and mixing the two produces reports that appear accurate but do not measure what they claim.

Why is this requirement included in the purchasing decision?

Because a system that displays “the plan’s completion rate is 83%” gives an attractive number to present to the administration or the supporting body, and it is a number that measures the tasks highlighted, not the status of the client. Basing impact reports on this number misleads everyone.

What should the scope cover?

• Target with indicator: Each objective has an indicator by which it is measured—a behavior, the outcome of an assessment tool, or a structured observation.
• Task as step: Tasks are means towards the goal, not the goal itself, and are linked to it.
• Completion Status: Completed, partially completed, or not implemented because — No binary only.
• Target Review: A field in which the specialist records his assessment of the target’s progress by date, and it is the only valid judgment.
• Modify objectives: The possibility of changing it while saving the previous version and the reason for the change.
• Show the two tracks: Commitment to tasks on the one hand, and progress on goals on the other – there is no single number that unites them.

Checklist in demo

• Create a target with a cursor and two tasks associated with it.
• Mark tasks as completed: Did the goal status change automatically? Expected: No.
• Register a review of the target as a specialist: has its date and name been preserved?
• Modify a target: Was the previous version saved and the reason for the modification?
• Request a plan report: Is there a disconnect between task commitment and goal progress?

The practical benefit of the distinction becomes apparent when reviewing: A client who completes all of his tasks and does not progress toward his goal indicates that the tasks are not the appropriate method. A client who progresses despite his weak commitment to tasks indicates another worker at work. Both conclusions are professionally useful, and impossible to reach from a single number that combines the two.

Limits that need to be adopted

• No automatic judgment of progress: The system does not determine that a goal has been achieved based on tagged tasks. Judgment is for the specialist alone.
• No misleading combined ratio: Avoid viewing “percentage of plan completion” as an impact indicator — use it as a commitment indicator by its proper name.
• Formulating professional goals: The system provides the structure, goal formulation and indicator for the specialist’s decision.
• Not using it for accounting: Comparing specialists with percentages of achieving goals leads to easy goals – and the damage is professional before it is administrative.

The next step is to document the requirements

Write in your requirements: “Separate task commitment indicator from goal progress assessment, with recorded specialist review.” See Plans page.