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 attent...