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Successful People Don’t Need Goals – and neither do you

 

A close friend at college helped support his study for an MBA by setting up a tiny import business, importing various scents and incenses from China. Always something of an entrepreneur, he swore by the virtue of setting goals. We were in our early twenties at the time and he said that one of his goals was to own his own plane by the time he was thirty; of course we laughed at him. He had many other goals too, in fact his whole life was mapped out in goals. Of course he achieved his private aeroplane by the time he was thirty, several years earlier in fact. The last I heard from him he had just sold on an airline business and bought a chain of hotels. He also owns one of the largest health supplement businesses in the world. This is all true, and every step of it carefully mapped out in goals.

Setting goals is what every MBA student learns as the Holy Grail of good business sense. Just about every book on business advises you to do so. Setting goals is so entrenched in business psychology and published literature that to suggest you don’t do it is a kind of heresy. However, that is exactly what is being suggested here.

The goal setting mantra

The usual mantra is that goal setting is good. The traditional path of setting goals that are intended to stretch performance includes the following steps:

  1. Write all the goals down ensuring that each one is specific and clearly stated
  2. Show how each goal will be measured
  3. Set the timeline and deadline for each goal
  4. State how goal attainment will be rewarded and how failure will be penalised

In other words, goals should be SMART as in: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. That’s fairly clear so what can be wrong with it? In fact, there is a wealth of research that indicates setting goals really can improve performance substantially (Karakowsky & Mann, 2008). There is also evidence that failing to set goals can reduce performance (Pihl & Shore, 2010).

The hidden cost of setting goals

On the other hand, collaborative research carried out by some of the top business schools in the US has demonstrated that goal setting can often do more harm than good, and that it can result in real damage to both individuals and organisations (Silverthorne, S., 2009). The authors say that “the beneficial effects of goal setting have been overstated and that systematic harm caused by goal setting has been largely ignored”. Some of the problems cited include:

  • An increase in unethical behaviour
  • Over concentration on one area while neglecting other areas
  • Distorted risk preferences
  • Adverse changes to organisational culture
  • A decrease in intrinsic motivation

In their paper Goals Gone Wild (Ordóñez L. & Schweitzer M., 2009) the authors provide some wonderful examples of goals setting gone wrong. These include the case of the Ford Pinto where the wrong design and cost goals led to Ford manufacturing a car that could ignite on impact; the result was 53 deaths, many injuries and some expensive law suits. But worse than that; on noticing the design flaw Ford executives were so driven by their goals, such as time to market, cost and fuel efficiency, to conclude that changing the design would cost more than the possible law suits. The fundamental problem was that the goals failed to address safety, ethical behaviour, and company reputation.

Incomplete knowledge

A problem with setting goals is that it is almost invariably carried out in a situation where there is incomplete knowledge. While Ford focussed on design and manufacturing costs, the goals were set without taking account of the true costs of failure.

Essentially, “Goals focus attention but they can focus attention so narrowly that people overlook other important features of a task”.

Applying this to sports psychology, setting goals can limit performance. If your coach sets you a performance goal, then that is what you will strive to achieve. You will be satisfied when you have achieved it and it is unlikely that you will be motivated to exceed it. But if at the actual event it turns out that it was the wrong goal and the opposition is better on the day, it is almost inevitable that you will lose. Goals are perceived as a ceiling for achievement rather than a floor from which you are able to improve. Once you achieve your goal the natural tendency is to relax.

When goals are too challenging

Another potential problem with goals is that they can be too challenging. The result of this is people take higher risks, indulge in unethical behaviours, and suffer the psychological problems of goal failure. A recent example from the business world is the Volkswagen diesel emission scandal. Faced with over-challenging US and EU regulations on emissions along with conflicting demands on cost and time to market, the business and many individuals within it suffered enormous damage.

In sport a perfect example of this is performance enhancing drugs and substance abuse. This kind of unethical behaviour can result from goal setting and it can go much further than the individual; it can apply to a whole organisation, or even a nation.

Continual improvement – the antithesis of goal setting

So, if setting goals can be dangerous what is the alternative? By making a commitment to continual improvement we can bypass goals completely. Just see what you can do today, and try to do just a little better tomorrow. Based on the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, it is a recognition that there is no such thing as perfection. The philosophy of continuous improvement is embraced by elite sports, from Formula One motorsport through to professional tennis.

It implies a focus on improving every aspect of training and performance; a determination to get better even when you are already the best; always being willing to learn; and improving both your personal performance and that of your team.

 

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    References

    Karakowsky, L., & Mann, S. L. (2008). Setting goals and taking ownership: Understanding the implications of participatively set goals from a causal attribution perspective. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 14, 260–270.

    Pihl, R., & Shore, B. (2010). Setting, Elaborating, and Reflecting on Personal Goals Improves Academic Performance. Journal of Applied Psychology,95,2, 255–264.

    Silverthorne, S., (2009). When Goal Setting Goes Bad, Harvard Business School, Research and Ideas, retrieved from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/when-goal-setting-goes-bad

    Ordóñez L. & Schweitzer M., (2009). Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting; working paper retrieved from http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/09-083.pdf

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