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What Goal Setting Acronyms, Models or Mentoring styles do you use?

Kathryn Bain

I know engineers love a good acronym - and I hope you're all familiar with the two we use most widely TWAVES and SMART:

TWAVES being the CPD activities (Training, Work Experience, Academic Study, Volunteering, Events and Seminars and Self Study) and SMART being a goal reminder that goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound).

But I'm looking to expand the models and information we use in our mentor and competence development training to ensure we're utilising the right models that engineers are actually using, and trying to ensure we're up to date with the current styles of support available to you.

So if you have a favourite, or alternatively if there is one that you think we should avoid - then I'd love to hear from you ...

Kathryn

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    The only problem was...generally they didn't work.

    Agreed. I have a job where (as I see it) my primary role is to do whatever needs doing to keep the customers happy & therefore the company profitable. Often I don't know in any kind of detail what I'll be doing from one day to the next - sometimes from one hour to another - it all depends on what needs to be done. I might be creating a new system one moment, then get broken off to investigate a problem another, or help a colleague with something completely different. Yet I'm supposed to set targets months or years in advance and  then be measured against them. So either I set "targets" that are so high level and vague (do whatever needs doing) that it's all pretty meaningless or at such a tangent (e.g. acquire such-and-such new skill/certificate in case it comes in useful at a later date) that putting effort into meeting it by a specific date is more likely detract from my primary role than enhance it. Then if an opportunity to do something extra useful does come up and I take advantage of it, I don't get credit for it under this approach as it wasn't set as a target.

    As for Acronyms being used for memory aids - that really doesn't work for me. I find it much harder to accurately remember lists of basically meaningless letters or words than I do to just understand the logic of the underlying system and just 'see' how it's going to behave. Maybe it's just the way my brain is wired and I should be on the spectrum of something or other (or not).

        - Andy.

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  • 0

    The only problem was...generally they didn't work.

    Agreed. I have a job where (as I see it) my primary role is to do whatever needs doing to keep the customers happy & therefore the company profitable. Often I don't know in any kind of detail what I'll be doing from one day to the next - sometimes from one hour to another - it all depends on what needs to be done. I might be creating a new system one moment, then get broken off to investigate a problem another, or help a colleague with something completely different. Yet I'm supposed to set targets months or years in advance and  then be measured against them. So either I set "targets" that are so high level and vague (do whatever needs doing) that it's all pretty meaningless or at such a tangent (e.g. acquire such-and-such new skill/certificate in case it comes in useful at a later date) that putting effort into meeting it by a specific date is more likely detract from my primary role than enhance it. Then if an opportunity to do something extra useful does come up and I take advantage of it, I don't get credit for it under this approach as it wasn't set as a target.

    As for Acronyms being used for memory aids - that really doesn't work for me. I find it much harder to accurately remember lists of basically meaningless letters or words than I do to just understand the logic of the underlying system and just 'see' how it's going to behave. Maybe it's just the way my brain is wired and I should be on the spectrum of something or other (or not).

        - Andy.

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