Realizing change through achievable goals

© 2004, Coert Visser

“While we pursue the unattainable, we make impossible the realizable.” - Robert Ardrey

One of the most important reasons why individuals and organizations fail to change effectively is that they formulate change goals ineffectively. Well-formulated goals are an important key to realizing successful change. Effective change goals are achievable, ineffective change goals are not.

Unachievable and achievable change goals

There are three ways in which the formulation of change goals can stand in the way of effective change. In the first place, change goals are often formulated negatively: they are formulated in terms of what one does not want instead of what one does want. In the second place, goals are formulatied in terms that are so abstract or vague that it is impossible to determine whether and when the goal is achieved and whether progress in the direction of the goal is made. In the third place, goal and means are often confused: people often focus their attention more on the activity than on the desired effect. The table below demonstrates the difference between unachievable and achievable change goals.

Unachievable change goals

1. Approach-oriented: the approach is made more important than the desired effect.
2. Negative: the goal is defined in negative terms: people know what they don’t want but not what they do want.
3. Abstract/vague: the goal is defined in abstract or vague terms: it is impossible to determine whether the goal (or progress in the direction of the goal) is achieved.

Achievable change goals

1. Results-oriented: the attention is focused on making progress in the direction of the desired results.
2. Positive: the goal defined in positive terms: people know how they want things to be different.
3. Concrete: the goal is defined in concrete terms: people can clearly determine when the goal (or progress in the direction of the goal) is achieved.

Examples

An example of an approach-oriented goal formulation is when an organization wants to implement a balanced scorecard but is not capable of explaining to what end. An example of a results-oriented goal formulation is when an organization wants to increase the percentage of satisfied customers. An example of a negative goal is when a manager says that he wants to solve a team conflict. What he says is that he wants to get rid of the negative (the conflict) but he does not make explicit how he wants things to be different. An example of a positive goal is when a manager says that he wants to achieve better decision making in his team. An example of abstract/vague goals is when a manager says that he wants more entrepreneurship in his organization. A goal is concrete when all people involved understand clearly what is intended with entrepreneurship (Employees making more cold calls? Employees offering more ideas for product innovation? Employee buying shares of the company?)

Turning unachievable change goals into achievable change goals

For many people it is very hard to define goals right away in such a way that they are achievable. That is why it is important to make goal formulations more effective step by step. Asking questions can be very helpful in this. In the example below a trainer helps a manager by asking questions to make his goals more positive, concreter and more results-oriented.

Manager: We must have training in planning and organizing skills for our team members. (approach-oriented goal formulation)

Trainer: How will you know afterwards the training will have been useful?

Manager: It will help in the sense that our team members won’t be so careless in planning and organizing. (negative goal formulation)

Trainer: How will they act instead when the training will be successful?

Manager: They’ll be more reliable in their time management. (abstract/vague goal formulation)

Trainer: How would you recognize that they would indeed become more reliable in their time management?

Manager: The main things would be they would meet their deadlines and they would be on time for meetings. (positive and concrete goal formulation)

Trainer: How would that help?

Manager: Both clients and team members would be more satisfied. Clients because they would be served more quickly and team members because their colleagues would be more reliable. (results-oriented goal formulation)

That most people formulate their goals initially in negative, approach-oriented and abstract terms is itself not so problematic. The negative goal formulation implies the acknowlegement of problems, the approach-oriented goal formulation shows the preparedness to change, and the abstract goal formulation shows at least a beginning of a vision on how they want things to be different.

But to change successfully it is necessary to turn negative, abstract and approach-oriented goal formulations into positive, concrete and results-oriented goals.

Keep on improving goal formulations

Formulating achievable goals usually does not have to be completed within minutes. Very often it will be useful to keep on thinking about what it is precisely that you want to achieve. This gives you the opportunity to respond to possible changes in the circumstances and to adjust your goals if necessary. Furthermore, it can have a very motivating effect to keep on visualizing how you want things to be.

Your goals

Have a look at the goals within your own organization and see if they are sufficiently positive, concrete and results-oriented. If that is not the case I hope this article will have given you some practical ideas about how to make them more achievable.