Aim For Stars Atleast You Will End Up On Moon

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.

                                                                                                                              - Aristotle

 Learning From Tower Building Exercise:

The TOWER BUILDING ACTIVITY, which was performed last week taught about the importance of working in a team and how often people rate themselves much below their actual potential. A person with open eyes tries to achieve an underrated goal, whereas a team of 3 with so many constraints (Blind folded worker, Can use only left hand and only one of the other two to instruct him) achieves more than their ambitiously set goal. 

This clearly strengthens the case that people often underrate themselves. So for us to keep moving in our lives, desire for more is very important. But people always set lower targets for themselves and get satisfied. The Hard Reality is that we can do much more than what we aim for.

After this task when we analyzed the team's performance and also the mental state of the blind folded worker, we got following feedback:

Ingredients for Effective Team Building:

Clear Team Goals - All members of the team must understand exactly what goals the team is striving to meet.

Improvisation – Team needs a plan for improvement. These may be formal plans of action and  
milestones or informal  team commitments. Whatever format the plan takes, all members of the
team must understand their role in its accomplishment.  

Well Defined Roles – Every member of the team should understand exactly what role they are filling in the scheme of work. In addition, they should understand everyone's roles and how they interrelate.

Clear Communication – The most important ingredient of all is clear communication. The team should convey clear, concise messages to each other, also should keep the door open for communication and feedback.

Team Behavior – Some behavioral practices help the team run smoothly,  these include  using  

courteous conversation  practices, seeking  opinions  and  input,  sharing  responsibility, 

compromising in resolving differences, employing creativity and candidness, and accepting and 

delivering praise and  critiques.

Importance of Setting Goals (SMART GOALS):

Whenever I see a Train, it always remind me of two ways of living life.
1. A person can be like the coach in a train, to be carried anywhere as it is carried by Locomotive.
2. To be the locomotive to move on a pre-planned route and also carrying others who are following it.

What is a Goal?  A goal is a desired result a person or a system envisions, plans and commits to achieve for personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Goals are endeavored to be reached/achieved within a preset time. 

However the most important thing we need to keep in mind while setting goals is what are the parameters or principles that will guide us towards the goal.
The best goals are SMART goals. SMART is a handy acronym for the five characteristics of well-designed goals.

PYGMALION EFFECT
In Greek Mythology, the mythical sculptor carves a statue of a woman that is brought to life and falls in love with it. Pygmalion explores the notion that the way one person treats another, for better or worse, can be transforming. For example, If a teacher believes a child is slow, the child will come to believe that, too, and will indeed learn slowly. The lucky child who strikes a teacher as bright also picks up on that expectation and will rise to fulfill it.
Creating positive expectations is remarkably difficult, and it offers guidelines for managers: Focus special attention on an employee’s first year because that’s when expectations are set, make sure new hires get matched with outstanding supervisors, and set high expectations for yourself. 

Main Purpose: It is to realize the potential.
Potential = Reality
Goal Setting should evolve in a Fibonacci kind of way.

So, one must always try to challenge himself and always set higher goals and never underestimate oneself.