Aiming High Step 7

Aiming High: The ability to set clear, tangible goals and devise a robust route to achieving them.

Step 7: I set goals, ordering and prioritising tasks to achieve them

Outcomes

To achieve Step 7, learners will show that they are able to start turning goals into action, by ordering and prioritising the tasks that are needed.

In the previous steps, the focus was on how to develop goals, first by thinking about what learners want to achieve, and then thinking about the wider needs of others, whether in groups or organisations they are part of. This step looks at how to start to work towards achieving those goals.

Learners need to be able to:

Identify tasks that are needed to achieve a goal
Put these tasks into a logical order

Introduction

Tasks are pieces of work that need to be done.
Achieving any goal required lots of individual tasks to be done.
If we are serious about achieving goals for ourselves, we need to be able to break those goals down into the tasks that we need to complete.

Skill Starter

Task Master

Use an example of a goal and ask learners to break it down into tasks. For example, in order to achieve the goal of competing in a 10km triathlon, what tasks would be required? What order would we have to complete the tasks in? Some learners may find it easier to write the tasks down using sticky notes or scrap paper and putting them in order.

10 mins

Individual activity

Written

Teach & Apply

It is important to think about the order that we do tasks in. There are several ways to think about how to order tasks:
- Dependency: It might be that some tasks can only be completed in a particular order. For example, you can’t ice a cake before it has been baked, and you can’t bake a cake before all of the ingredients have been mixed together.
- Priority: In some cases, when there are lots of tasks to do and no dependency then we will want to think about which tasks are most important. For example, we might have twenty ideas about how to get people to come to an event – if we’re not sure whether we might have time to do all twenty, then it makes sense to start with the ones we think will have the biggest effect.
- External dependencies: It might be that some tasks rely on something or someone else out of your control to complete them. For example, you might need your oven to be fixed before you can bake a cake.
- Parallel tasks: In some cases it might be possible to work on more than task at a time. For example, while the coach is setting up equipment, we might be able to get changed or warm up. In organisations, individuals are often working on different tasks alongside each other.
We can use these principles to help us to arrange different tasks into the order that makes it easiest to complete them and achieve our goals.

Optional Activity

Going for Goals

In small groups, learners can identify or be given a goal that the team is working towards. This goal can be represented by a physical goal, i.e. a hoop, goalpost, etc.

Each learner in the group must assign themselves a task towards achieving their goal and arrange themselves in the order of priority/timeline. Some learners may need to stand next to each other if their tasks are parallel.

Other equipment like cones can be used to represent external dependencies.

The aim is to create a physical representation of their route to achieving the goal. To complete the activity, learners can play a simple relay game against the clock starting from the first task to the final goal.

20 mins

Group activity

Active

Reflection & Assessment

Embed these strategies across your teaching and coaching to help learners apply what they’ve learnt.

Where learners are set projects, extended tasks or pieces of work, encourage them to create a plan. This means taking the goal and identifying all the tasks that need to completed, then ordering these tasks and putting them on a timeline. Professional sports team leagues can be used as example, using weekly fixtures to highlight milestones along the way.

Use these ideas for ways of assessing this skill step to help you check learners’ understanding and confidence.

Discussion can be used to explore why learners have made the choices they have, and whether these are based on a good understanding of the step.
Ask these reflective questions:
- What do we mean by tasks?
- How do tasks link to goals?
- What is a logical order?