If goals don’t matter, don’t have them
Life is messy, complex and pulls you into all directions at once. We well know that our path of least resistance is to deal with daily stuff so as to stay in the same spot – and hope to get lucky.
We set ourselves goals to help us fight procrastination and confusion and actually achieve what we’d like to achieve. Goals help us to:
- Set a direction: in the confusion of day to day problems and routines, clear goals remind us where to focus in order to progress towards what we desire. Goals and deadlines give us direction, as a compass, as we can look back at what we do daily and see whether these actions bring us closer to our goals or not.
- Generate creative tension: setting goals and deadlines also helps to support creativity. By thinking about how to reach a goal, and mulling about whether we progress or not, whether owe have breaks or setbacks, we can gain insight – new, creative ways to tell the story and connect the dots in unlooked for ways, which will lead us to realize our goals, although not necessarily in the way we planned.
In Lean, goals are visualized so every one can keep them in mind and discuss progress, opportunities, setbacks and how good our plans are: enough effort? Not enough effort? The smartest way to get there?
But goals can also be stressful. Stress is the result of the gap between the task ahead of us and how we feel about our internal resources to face it. We get very stressed when we see clearly we’ve got to do or achieve something, and feel we’re not up to it. or goals to work positively, they’ve got to:
- Matter: not be meaningless or ritualistic, but real goals with real outcomes attached, in a way that makes sense to all;
- Reasonable: even if they’re challenging, the goals must be thoroughly discussed between all so that we understand why we’re reaching for that and in what time frame;
- Supported: it’s also really important to know that even if we don’t feel up to reaching for a challenging goal, we will not be left alone, but supported in how to face the issue and how to learn to succeed.
Sometimes, you walk by boards where goals are consistently missed, no issues are spelled out and there is very little sign that anyone in management really cares. Such goals are worse than meaningless – they’re counterproductive as they stress people, lower management’s credibility and drive raindance-like behavior from teams (nod your head, agree with the boss, keep your head down).
If you set goals, make them matter: show that you care, both about achieving the goal and about how people intend to go about it. Caring about the goal is not nearly as powerful as caring about the people that aim for it, and supporting their success.
