Being an Engineer

Mini Episode | Are Your Systems Aligned with Your Goals?

February 24, 2023 Aaron Moncur Season 4 Episode 8
Being an Engineer
Mini Episode | Are Your Systems Aligned with Your Goals?
Show Notes Transcript

In this series of mini podcast episodes, founder of Pipeline Design & Engineering Aaron Moncur explores a variety of principles he has learned and developed over the last 13 years to grow himself and the engineers on his team. Today’s episode is focused on the achievement of goals. To set a goal is not enough. The accomplishment of goals often requires a system for doing so. Learn how to create simple systems to help accomplish your goals, and how to evaluate whether a system is a good one or not. 

Aaron Moncur, host

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About Being An Engineer

The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.

The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us

Aaron Moncur:

A few weeks ago, we recognized an engineering student named Jorge. After his girlfriend Adriana told us how big a fan he is of the show. Hearing afterwards from Jorge about how much it meant to him was one of the more rewarding experiences I've shared with our listeners. Here's what he said. Words cannot begin to describe how grateful and appreciative I am of both you and Adriana for gifting me such a memorable and amazing moment, I still can't believe it. Well, Jorge, it was our pleasure. And he gave us an idea. Live today, we are introducing a new program to the being an engineer podcast to recognize engineers who excel in their field. We're calling it the being an engineer Circle of Excellence, and we hope it will be a way to more fully realize the mission of the podcast as a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant people, resources and opportunities. We also hope it will be a way for you the listener to experience the joy and excitement associated with recognizing worthy peers and being recognized by your peers. To submit a nomination, go to Team pipeline.us forward slash excellence and fill out the form with the name of your nominee and a short description of what makes him or her deserving of the award. We here at the podcast will review the submissions and select winners. Those winners will be announced and recognized on the show and will receive some complimentary being an engineer podcast swag. The program is live right now go to Team pipeline.us. Forward slash excellence and give a deserving engineer the gift of a memorable and amazing moment of their own. Hello, and welcome to the being an engineer podcast. For those of you who missed the last one. I'll be mixing in a series of mini podcast episodes over the next few months and possibly longer if feedback is positive. These will be five to 10 minutes in length and focused on specific principles I've learned and developed over the years to execute engineering projects and grow myself and my team of engineers. I'd love to hear your feedback on this new format. Please share your thoughts by sending us a message at podcast at Team pipeline.us for leaving us a review on the platform you're using to listen to this episode. Today, the principle I'll be sharing is about achieving goals. Specifically exploring the following question are our systems aligned with our goals? It's been said that a person without goals is like a ship without a rudder True enough and a goal without a plan to achieve it. It's like a destination without a road. In his excellent book, Benjamin Hardy tells us that will power doesn't work. We as humans need a method for achieving our goals not just setting them. Fortunately, one has already been invented. It's called a system. My definition of a system is a set of practices that if followed will result in a predictable outcome and outcome I am very motivated to see realize is the success of my business. One of the critical factors in making that vision a reality is assessing the health and trajectory of my business on a regular basis. To do this, I have formulated a series of recurring reports that our administrative staff generates, which illustrate how well we're achieving certain key business metrics such as productivity, profitability, efficiency, etc. Having the reports available, however, is not enough. I need to ensure I review them regularly so that I can take appropriate action in the business based on what they tell me. For a long time, I reviewed them whenever I had time. In other words, not on a regular basis. As a result, I was missing trends and key insights I should have been paying close attention to and not taking timely and appropriate action as a result. I realized I didn't have a good system in place to ensure our review To reports regularly, I also realized that there were other items I should have been reviewing regularly, that were also being neglected goals, sales, lead status audits, etc. My solution, my system was to create a series of calendar reminders for Monday mornings that reminded me and blocked off time in my schedule to spend time reviewing these specific items. Though simple, it has worked brilliantly for me. Several years back, I started training in jujitsu, I loved it, and set a goal to get my blue belt. To achieve that goal, I needed to be training several times per week, or I wouldn't progress. But things kept getting in the way of being there often enough, I'd have a long day at work that would cut into training time or the school event for the kids, or I was just too tired. After three years, I still didn't have my blue belt and I quit. It was a sad day. The reason I never got there wasn't because I didn't want it it was because I never put into place a system to ensure I can train often enough. Now how could I have created such a system, I could have decided that on such and such days, I'll create dedicated calendar events blocking out training time, so work didn't sneak up and get in the way. I could have planned for short afternoon naps to make sure I had the energy to train, I could have set a recurring task to look at my family obligations two weeks out, so events requiring my attendance could be identified early, and I could rearrange my training schedule for those days. I never did any of these things. And that's why I failed. Sidenote, I have since returned to jujitsu implemented a simple system. And I'm proud to say I earned my blue belt about a year ago. Yay. I worry that people get scared of the word system because it conjures up in their minds, immense complexity, huge time constraints and fear of the unknown. But systems can be really simple. It could just be a calendar event, like I scheduled to review reports or a simple checklist that your team follows before releasing critical documents, or a method for organizing files. So everyone knows where to find what the point is. systems can be simple. And the best ones often are. How do you know if your system is a good one? You try it. If after a few weeks, you're getting more of what you want. In other words, achieving your goals. It's probably a good system. If you're not chances are your system needs improving. Regardless, the system for evaluating a system is simply to try it and see what happens. Then revise as needed. If you're having trouble accomplishing your goals, take a look at the systems you've put in place or haven't to support those goals. Are your systems in alignment with that is supporting the accomplishment of your goals. If not, think about the behaviors that need to occur to achieve those goals. Then create a system checklist, calendar event routine etc. To ensure those goals get done. Systems are our friends. Good luck. I'm Erin Moncure, founder of pipeline design and engineering. If you liked what you heard today, please share the episode. To learn how your team can leverage our team's expertise developing turnkey equipment, custom fixtures and automated machines and with product design, visit us at Team pipeline.us. Thanks for listening