Not you okay!!!

In this interesting post, I present one of the techniques of  Quality management which is used in many organizations in many contexts. Evidently, most of the quality management techniques used in business organizations can also be applied in real life  such as Kaizen or Root cause analysis. So, target zero can also be applied in personal lives to achieve goals or improve one aspect or the other.

Brief Introduction

Set a target for yourself to achieve zero occurrence of something that you want to avoid or eliminate (such as no. of unsettled customer complaints or the no. of unread emails in your inbox)

Why Target Zero?

Because even at the perfection rate of 99% of manufacturing airplanes, it  may mean 10 airplanes per 1000 turn out to be defective (quite costly and life-threatening).

Because even at the perfection rate of 99% in construction safety, it may mean 10 people being injured per 1000.

So, target zero may be pursued in  the higher interest of achieving the perfection rate of 100% slowly, gradually but finally in reaching the ultimate objective of zero-tolerance & occurrence of something we wish to avoid.

Quick Examples (to let you understand the concept)

• Target Zero grammatical mistakes in a document,
• Target Zero unread or not-replied e-mail at the end of the day,
• Target Zero cigarettes you smoke in a day ,
• Target Zero use of credit card for a week to cut on expenses,
• Target Zero day(s) of not going to gym for exercise.

Some more inspirational examples (world would have been a better place if could achieve these)

• Target Zero rate of poverty in the world
• Target Zero terrorist attacks in the world
• Target Zero new HIV aids cases in the world

Are we too optimistic? In India, we have Target Zero rate of new polio cases every year (and its quite successful as no. of new polio cases have gone down dramatically.)

One Take Away from the idea of Target Zero

Even if you are not able to achieve your target you are slowly moving towards achieving it and hopefully are in a better position than you were before you set the target for yourself.

Foundations for Setting your Target Zero

Four Pillars Of Target Zero

1. Concrete Goal: There should be some goal or objective behind your target which you wish to achieve.

Example: You want to reply all the mails in your inbox or you want to read 20 books till the end of the year.

2. Zero Tolerance: You should have zero tolerance attitude towards any exceptions to your ultimate goal or objective. This may be that 1 not-replied email remaining in your inbox or that 1 chapter remaining to be read to help in achieving your objective of 20 books per year. Just reply to your mail or finish off your chapter to achieve your Target Zero.

3. Time Bound: Not all your “Target Zero’s” need to be time bound, but it may help to asses & ponder over later if you have set a time limit. Your target zero may be time-bound for a day, a week, a fortnight or may be a year.

4. Result-oriented: You must be result oriented i.e. framing the Target Zero will not suffice at all ,you need to constantly asses your performance. Are you living the promise you made? Are making some progress compared to the time when you had not set the Target Zero for yourself.

You may continue reading the post to learn more about the Target Zero & helpful hints & tips in setting your own Target Zero.

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