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  • From the lesson some unrealistic targets are some that fail to take into account the local context of a problem and usually trying to solve a problem with a top down approach... E.g Technocrats at national level wanting to solve problems at village level without looking at the problem from a village point of view.

  • Unrealist targets sometimes may considered as bullying or harrasments to the one implementing the projects

  • Unrealistic Targets should be revisited and look at the data available mine opinion..

  • Creating realistic targets is a skill that comes from adept project management. Which derives from clear communication, an understanding of the scope of work, and having the experience of what is considered realistic or not for both the client and the team.
    Unrealistic targets:
    There are a variety of root causes that can lead to leaders to set unrealistic Targets. it may be caused by a perception or project managers are overly conservative in their estimates, since it is easy to underestimate the time and effort needed to complete work when removed from the process.
    this could lead to:
    Wasted money, Squandered people time, Diminished organizational change efficacy, Damaged credibility,
    Damaged reputations, Damaged morale etc.
    planning becomes a critical piece in managing expectations, during the project, keep the team focused on reaching those quick wins and intermediate project goals and milestones to demonstrate progress, Finally, at project close, document successes and failures honestly and accurately.

  • Great experience so far. Some times we get overly ambitious that we think we could change the world in 6 months. It's great to learn that change is a process and not an event. Targets are not static but fluid. Ambitious but realistic- great phrase.

  • If you say that someone is being unrealistic, you mean that they do not recognize the truth about a situation, especially about the difficulties involved in something they want to achieve.

    A goal is said to be unrealistic when the goal is something that requires more energy, skills, talents, and time than you have available in order to achieve it.

    Another unrealistic goal may be one that is not in alignment with your own greatest gifts and talents.

  • yes and we need to employ strong targets and realistic

  • Setting a goal for a program/project is an important part of programming. A program or a project should not ideally have multiple goals. The goal is what has to be ultimately achieved; the final form or situation that we would like to see. But it is to be clearly distinguished from vision. Goal and vision are two entirely different things. Goal is more about where we want to reach and vision is more about what we want to see. A vision can be more idealistic but a goal has to be more realistic.

    Some examples of project goal are:

    1.   Increased income of landless farmers in the target area
      
    2.   Reduced infant mortality rate (IMR)
      
    3.   All children aged 16 years completing high school
      
    4.   All youth aged 25 years and above employed
      

    While some examples of vision are:

    1.   No person in the target population go hungry
      
    2.   Children living without fear in their communities
      
    3.   No child dies of preventable diseases
  • Targets can be adjusted.
    Strong Indicators should be objective,Practical to measure,Attributable, Used by Management in decision making.
    When selecting indicators you should include both Quantitative and Qualitative indicators.
    Indicators should not contain specific numbers or percentages.
    Usually targets are what your organization aims to achieve by the end of the project.

  • Setting unrealistic targets may led to disappointments not only to you but also to the entire team and the donors.
    As you set your ambitious targets care should be taken to ensure that with the resources available at your disposal the targets can be met.
    To avoid choosing unrealistic targets one may want to focus only on the data available and not their own feelings or know hows.

  • Unrealistic targets are targets set without putting some key components into consideration. Such as Historical trends , existing data and baseline . These components coupled with the amount of funds available for the project makes it easy for a more realistic target to be set.

  • Setting unrealistic targets or overambitious targets happen when some key components are not put into consideration when planning.
    These key components can either be existing data, historical trends and baseline .
    A good monitoring and evaluation expert would work these components when planning his targets and avoid unrealistic targets that would put the stakeholders off.

  • Yes I agree with that . Because once your donors sense unrealistic targets or overambitious targets it is a bad signal.

  • Example of unrealistic targets:
    Let say an organization in Nigeria embarks on project on Malaria, which targets to eradicate malaria within 5 years of implementation. This is unrealistic because no single project can eradicate Malaria in Nigeria or any location, a project or intervention can only contribute to the eradication of Malaria in Nigeria. For example, the target is 20% reduction in malaria prevalence in Nigeria.

  • An example of an unrealistic target will be when an organization in Nigeria embarks on a Malaria eradication project and targets to completely eradicate Malaria in Nigeria within 5 years of project implementation.
    this target is unrealistic because no single project can successfully achieve that but this project can contribute by a percentage to the eradication.
    Example of a realistic project will be to reduce Malaria Prevalence in Nigeria by 20%.

  • I have learnt how to create an indicators document and setting targets that are realistic for the team to reach a high level of success.

  • A goal becomes unrealistic when the the goal something that require more energy. there are different unrealistic target, another unrealistic goal it does not aligned with your target.

  • Unrealistic targets will keep the moral of staff low.

  • Unrealistic targets could be set when an individual is very ambitious. But if going by certain indicators that the target is not achievable, it may be adjusted. This is something that is typical of people that have big dreams but there is absolutely no harm as things can change oncereality dawns and a quick adjustment is absolutely inevitable.

  • ALL GIRLSBELOW 18 YEARS WILL BE ENROLLED INTO INIVERSITY BY 2030

  • Sure. All indicator should be SMART. That will make them align with the project objectives

  • I believe that, it is very important to avoid unrealistic targets considering the available budget, human resources and plan of actions or the life span of the project. Also, it is good to consider the assumptions and risks which are out of the project control. Unrealistic targets will lead to frustration, and project failure, even if there is hard work to achieve the goal/s. Donors may undermine the efforts that the project has been exerting to achieve the goal/s, in turn it will cause losing donors future commitment to fund the same project or different project.

  • Unrealistic target can be very overwhelming to the staff working on rthe program implementation. For example, setting a target for an educational scholarship at a university, has to count for the available funds. For example, we can't provide a scholarship to 500 individuals if the funds that we have is 4 millions dollars noting that the educational cost per student for 3 years is 30,000 $.

  • "You may not have access to all of these types of information when you set your targets. However, it is always a good idea to get as much information as you possibly can before you set your targets."
    If we might not have access to all the information we can't get our targets.

  • Some targets may be be too unrealistic in that they may be too expensive to achieve, may take so much time, may need a huge workforce or may take in a lot of resources. The risks that maybe encountered will also determine whether target can be achieved or not. For example, someone may say that they want to enroll 1000 prostitutes in a month to a certain project. First of all this is a sensitive population and even getting few numbers maybe a task.Not many of them would even want to come out.So this is unrealistic

  • these are targets which are over ambitious and unrealistic.

  • It is inappropriate to have targets that will require huge capital that exceeds the allotted budget to measure . Such targets can hinder the effectiveness and efficiency of project evaluation

  • unrealistic target is a target which was selected without having experience, research or studies, experts opinions. in other work it was determined on our desire, imagination, and ambitious. therefor they can't be achieved in which the project team might work hard and not achieving goals which will affect them and make them frustrated. or might be so easy that does not make a change into people's lives.

  • It is very important for an organisation to set itself realistic targets. Setting unrealistic targets can put a lot of undue stress on project implementors. I have first-hand experience of a situation where the targets are unrealistic yet it was expected that I should meet them. Thid can break workers and cause a lot of problems for organisations

  • Unrealistic targets.
    These are targets that are too ambiguous to achieve. This could be due to:

    1. beyond the budget targets.
    2. Over excitement. The targets are triggered by emotions ..
    3. Lack of information. Without doing some research the targets might be unrealistic.
      4.Time frame. The time scheduled for the project might make the targets unrealistic
  • very reach information in this topic and difficult bit to understand well .

  • Setting unrealistic targets can cost an organisation a lot of time, waste scarce precious resources on trying to achieve the impossible

  • Setting unrealistic targets can lead to failure and disappointment for you, team nembers and your donors. Unrealistic targerts cannot be measured in most cases. It is also very important that your targets go hand in hand with your budget, an example might be you have already set an unrealistic target of 70 000 people to be reach and your budget can only allow you to reach 40 000. Your project might end up failing, because clearly your gials are unrwalustic vs the budget.

  • Unrealistic Targets are not measurable.

  • Targets understated or overstated are unrealistic. To limit the likelihood of setting an unrealistic target, it's essential to use data instead of feelings.

  • Avoiding unrealistic targets is advantageous to having a successful project. To do that, it is important to collect baseline data, research with other similar project, and be ready to make adjustments when necessary.

  • When does a target become too ambitious or unrealistic?

  • I have learnt that sometimes opportunistic people might set unrealistic targets although ambitious, but might not be achievable given the level of resource availability. However, targets can be adjusted after an in-depth consultation with the project stakeholders including the donor, project team and beneficiaries.

  • Unrealistic targets can really affect the lifecycle of a project. It can demoralize the project team, it may lead to inadequate funding or planning, and it can jeopardize the success of the project.

  • Targets should be evidence based and ambitious, which entails setting meaningful targets to provide to the working team with implementating partners and stakeholders in regards to the project with benchmark to document progress toward achieving results ,hence with unrealistic target this may not be achievable.

  • To make our targets ambitious yet realistic we looked at our previous
    implementation and what we've been able to achieve and set new targets. Again we
    looked at the kind of resources that we have available for us. Was it realizable
    for us to realize new targets? Then, if so, we set new targets. We also picked two
    scenarios where we asked ourselves: if all of the risks happened, what will be the
    new target? If they didn't happen, what would be the new target? Then we
    set the midline to be our new target. Lastly, we set our project to have
    incentives for staff to realize these new targets. Does it mean that
    when you set a target you can't go back and adjust your target? No. For our
    case we had to go back and adjust our target because that was the most
    realistic thing to do. For example, we said that we will begin our projects on
    month two and it was almost impossible. We began a project at month seven so we
    had to adjust our targets based that we started a bit late.

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  • Girls might not know how to start or upgrade a business

  • The unrealistic target is when you set too much higher target than the total number. Example; target 90, number of 50 children.

  • Comment définir de manière réaliste une cible?

  • unrealistic targets, turned in to realist ones through viglant preparation and creativity are the ones which make the impossible possible

  • For every project, it is important to set a clear target at the design stage. The target should be both optimistic and realistic to engender quality output and motivation.
    One major challenge to setting realistic targets is poor planning(i.e. inadequate research and use of quality data). This affects the quality of our assumptions and appreciation of risks that may affect the project. Hence, unrealistic targets are targets that are not attainable due poor planning at the project design stage.
    Unrealistic targets can be frustrating and demotivating to both staff and donors due to sub-optimal use of resources that often results.

  • Unrealistic targets. Creating own indicators rather than using a standard indicator when one exists. Making someone responsible for measuring the indicator who has a conflict of interest. Only measuring and reporting the goal and outcome indicators at the end of the program.

  • unrealistic targets is the unrealistic assumptions about not seeing the resource availability, quality of materials, and work process (just to name a few factors) should be used. This approach yields a credible estimation of what is reasonably achievable. If this estimation does not meet business goals, then a systematic risk-vs.-return process should be pursued until it can be verified whether or not the targets can be met within a given level of elevated risk. That's the process that should be followed.

    Unfortunately, we live in a real world. Targets are far too often based on desire or a vague sense of what should be achievable, rather than driven by calculated business needs. In even more unfortunate circumstances, targets are developed before it's even known what the project entails! In either case, the result is that impatience— rather than a rational

  • My self Taslim Khan. I am living in India. I am working in a non-profit organization. My company name is YUVA "Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action". I have 9 years of experience in this field. My working community is located in Mumbai slum Behrampda Bandra.
    We are working with Children, Youth, Women, Community leaders also the system. We create awareness of their rights and make their group work together on their issue.
    Our organizational goal is strengthening community structures and civil society participation to promote inclusive, sustainable, child-friendly cities (SDG 11) in the slums.

  • The target should be ambitious but yet realistic. Failing to set realistic targets will lead to serious problem because it will be so difficult to achieve and will cost additional resources in terms of time and money. This will create a serious issue with the team and the donors. So, it is better to test the target before adopting the targets and sharing it with the stakeholders

  • unrealistic target means that, the truth about a situation is not recognized, especially about the difficulties involved in something they want to achieve.

  • unrealistic, you mean that they do not recognize the truth about a situation, especially about the difficulties involved in something they want to achieve.

  • Unrealistic targets are often a source of frustration for the team. It could be due to a shortage of resources, poor anticipation of risks and over-optimistic assumptions. Immediately, it is clear that the targets are unrealistic, it needs to be adjusted and the entire project redesigned.

  • Unrealistic target is tsrget that is not supported by a data,prevous research finding or experts expectation.

  • If you say that someone is being unrealistic, you mean that they do not recognize the truth about a situation, especially about the difficulties involved in something they want to achieve.

  • If you say that someone is being unrealistic, you mean that they do not recognize the truth about a situation, especially about the difficulties involved in something they want to achieve.

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  • If you say that someone is being unrealistic, you mean that they do not recognize the truth about a situation, especially about the difficulties involved in something they want to achieve. Because can’t be archives up on our feelings but up on the data that we have collected

  • Targets are flexible and should be reviewed intermittently during the course of the project or if some unforeseen risks were encountered.
    Targets should also be SMART(Simple, measurable, achievable/attainable, realistic and time bound), that way we avoid setting unrealistic targets.

  • If you say that someone is being unrealistic, you mean that they do not recognize the truth about a situation, especially about the difficulties involved in something they want to achieve.
    Example:
    Setting unrealistic time frame for big project

  • I think that "Targets" must be as realistic as possible because our results will be a little bit equal or high to our planned target. The more we plan realistic target the more our result will be closer to the target.

  • we had the same challenge in a project i was in, the projected number of beneficiaries targeted to reach in the district was more than the total population of the district meaning the target was unrealistic and totally impractical to achieve

  • When you set unrealistic targets it makes look like a failure, your staff demotivated and the donors disappointed! So it is imperative to readjust the targets due to changing situations to present what is achievable.

  • its important for my team and i to set achievable realistic targets even if the set targets seem pessimistic. we are in agreement that its more important to set targets we can achieve for the satisfaction of all our stakeholders instead of targets that are admirable yet unachievable by the end of the project timeline.

  • Unrealistic targets are frequent mistake because many community variants and social issues are not considered during the design phase. Therefore, a thorough data collection and comparison with similar projects will provide lessons learnt and what could be a realistic target fro the project the organization is intending to start.

  • a goal is unrealistic when the goal is something that requires more skills and knowledge, energy and time more than you have available in order to achieve it.
    example of unrealistic target to earn a million dollars in a year.

    most of the time unrealistic targets do not come out fruitful and this gives negative impacts to the stakeholders and the donors.

    sometimes unrealistic goals can turn into reality if you get to work, thinking out of the box , creating massive accountability and giving more time to yourself and to the project.

  • Targets are flexible and should be reviewed intermittently during the course of the project or if some unforeseen risks were encountered.
    Targets should also be SMART(Simple, measurable, achievable/attainable, realistic and time bound), that way we avoid setting unrealistic targets.

  • Unrealistic targets are not achievable and are not realiable

  • For sure to avoid disappointments in an organization, it's much better to consider baselines and historical trends when setting realistic targets.

  • For sure to avoid disappointments in an organization, it's much better to consider baselines and historical trends when setting realistic targets.

  • The four data management questions /steps are very vital.

  • Unrealistic targets are not achievable and are not realiable

  • Unrealistic targets are not achievable and are not reliable.
    Targets must be realistic and ambitious.

  • These can be ambitious targets, that are not practical and feasible and alot of times they are difficult to measure and even evaluate.

  • Learnt that it is important to set realistic targets. setting unrealistic targets will end up disappointing you and all members of your team including the stakeholders.

    When setting your targets its important to take into consideration a lot of factors including knowing the baseline and historical trend of the indicator amongst others. It must be in line with the indicator.

    Target is advised to be ambitious but realizable. It motivate the team to reach high levels of success. targets can be adjusted haven considered the possible risks and other factors that may affect the project.

    It's also important to consider these sources of information to enable you set realistic targets for your projects: Expert opinions, research findings or previous projects, stakeholders expectations and the projects budget.

  • A target can be unrealistic when it requires more energy, skills, time and money than the project has available. It can also be when it is set using feelings instead of data. When an unrealistic target is set, it won't be attained and will result in negative emotions, frustration, disappointment and failure. To avoid setting unrealistic target, let's ensure our Target is with the scope of work and within the available budget, also taking into consideration the available resources

  • A goal is unrealistic when the goal is something that requires more energy, skills, talents, and time than you have available in order to achieve it.

    Here are a few examples of unrealistic goals:
    Financial goal – to earn a million dollars in a year.
    Weight loss goal – to quickly burn the fat through exercise.
    Business goal – to build a multi-million-dollar business in a year.
    Sports goal – to run faster than Usain Bolt or to play in the NBA.

  • It was a very interesting discussion. The thing that stuck out the most was under the Seven Criteria for Strong Indicators >> balancing adequate measurements with practical considerations.

    Sometimes the tradeoff is rather difficult. Also, in the NGO environment of navigating what donors want you to measure verses what is needed to ensure the success of the project, the two don't always align

  • It was a very interesting discussion. The thing that stuck out the most was under the Seven Criteria for Strong Indicators >> balancing adequate measurements with practical considerations.

    Sometimes the tradeoff is rather difficult. Also, in the NGO environment of navigating what donors want you to measure verses what is needed to ensure the success of the project, the two don't always align

  • It was a very interesting discussion. The thing that stuck out the most was under the Seven Criteria for Strong Indicators >> balancing adequate measurements with practical considerations.

    Sometimes the tradeoff is rather difficult. Also, in the NGO environment of navigating what donors want you to measure verses what is needed to ensure the success of the project, the two don't always align

  • The course is complet, the way the target is explained is clear. when setting target the M&E expert must be realistic, have to look for all the information about the target he is expeting to set. the M&E expert have to know or not wether the team will achieve the target.

  • Targets are very important aspect if the project is to win donor funding,for instant if the targets are too low donors will be reluctant to fund your project and also if the targets are too high we may end up failing to attain the set targets this will disappoint the project team and the donors.As M&E expert we need always rely on data and not our feeling when setting targets for the project.Unrealistic targets will make the project to miss its goal hence end up in disappointing the donor and the project team even the beneficiaries,

  • Targets are very important aspect if the project is to win donor funding,for instant if the targets are too low donors will be reluctant to fund your project and also if the targets are too high we may end up failing to attain the set targets this will disappoint the project team and the donors.As M&E expert we need always rely on data and not our feeling when setting targets for the project.Unrealistic targets will make the project to miss its goal hence end up in disappointing the donor and the project team even the beneficiaries,

  • Unrealistic targets make it difficult for a project to be fruitful, thus it is important for the project team to continuously review their targets to ensure that they are attainable and realistic.

  • A project team who set unrealistic targets often lack understanding of the intricacies involved in a project and the ripple effect they create on decisions, contingencies and risk. Detailed planning, communication and documentation will help to overcome this challenge.
    Unrealistic targets would lead to :
    1- Wasted money
    2-Squandered people time.
    3-Inferior quality.
    4-Diminished organizational change efficacy
    5-Damaged credibility
    6-Damaged reputations
    7-Damaged morale.

  • A project team who set unrealistic targets often lack understanding of the intricacies involved in a project and the ripple effect they create on decisions, contingencies and risk. Detailed planning, communication and documentation will help to overcome this challenge.
    Unrealistic targets would lead to :
    1- Wasted money
    2-Squandered people time.
    3-Inferior quality.
    4-Diminished organizational change efficacy
    5-Damaged credibility
    6-Damaged reputations
    7-Damaged morale.

  • A project team who set unrealistic targets often lack understanding of the intricacies involved in a project and the ripple effect they create on decisions, contingencies and risk. Detailed planning, communication and documentation will help to overcome this challenge.
    Unrealistic targets would lead to :
    1- Wasted money
    2-Squandered people time.
    3-Inferior quality.
    4-Diminished organizational change efficacy
    5-Damaged credibility
    6-Damaged reputations
    7-Damaged morale.

  • Don't have unreachable goals in mind.

  • From the module, I have learnt the difference between an indicator and a target.
    Indicator- this are the things you will measure to measure how successful the project is being implemented.
    Target - This are the specific thresholds you want to meet. Usually in numbers and percentages.

    It is also worth noting the importance of correctly identifying the indicator to use in your project. This will help you and the team measure project success more effectively and efficiently. This also helps in effective decision making in the course of implementing the project.
    I have also learnt the different types of indicators ( Qualitative and Quantitative ) . Both are equally important and i should have a mix of both in my log frame
    Indicators and targets are interrelated. As a result selecting the correct indicators will enhance the setting of ambitious and realistic targets. It is important to start by setting the end target before the smaller targets.
    Set targets can also me changed in the course of implementing the project.

  • an unrealist targert is a target that couldn't be achivied by the project. The project designer doesn't think about some difficult that could happen during different activities

  • Don't have unreachable goals in mind.

  • Unrealistic targets are targets that do not follow any criteria eg.
    Expert opinion when setting them
    Stakeholder expectations
    The Project budget
    Research findings on previous projects

  • Unrealistic targets are as a result of poor research or planning, poor team effort and misjudgement of the programme. There is need to have background information to extrapolate what target to use. Unrealistic targets lead to frustration and defeat the purpose of the project

  • Unrealistic targets can put pressure unnecessary pressure on employees.
    Giving yourself a break and asking for advice can help you set realistic and ambitious goals

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  • Targets are better when it is realistic. However, in some projects, the funders may dish out targets without recourse to whether they are tenable or not. It may also be done by the implementing organization when proper homework was not done before setting targets. Unrealistic targets may be in scope, in time and on budget. This should be avoided at all times and if it happens, there is need to adjust the target to a realistic level

  • it is important to set a good target, especially what we can achieve where possible.
    It is therefore not necessary to set objectives that are beyond our control to perhaps try to prove any involvement or to please a donor because this will rather discredit the organization or the structure on these performances.

  • The following should be consider to set ambiguous yet realistic targets
    -always look at previous research on same kind of project to determine level of achievement.
    -look at the resources available for the project.
    -also check stakeholder expectation before setting realistic targets

  • A good target have to be realistic

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