Good Goals

Many years ago, Life Magazine ran a story about a man who, early in his life, had made a list of some 500 goals he wanted to achieve over the course of his life. Clearly an eccentric and adventurous fellow, the list included such goals as visiting the Taj Mahal and parachuting from an airplane. The reason the story was newsworthy, other than the fact that many of the goals were particularly colorful, was that the man had actually achieved most of them. The story made for an engaging portrait of an obsession. As we reflect on the story today, it reminds us of the power of goal setting.

The very practical idea that goals beget results is not new. As Euripides, the 5th century BC Greek tragedian, bemoaned, "A bad beginning makes a bad ending." According to Seneca, the 1st century AD Roman statesman, "Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind." And, in the priceless words of John Heywood, 16th century collector of marvelous English colloquial sayings, "Look ere ye leape." In ancient times as well as modern, it has always been self-evident that goals are necessary to provide purpose and direction to activity, and that activity without a goal gets you nowhere.

Contemporary organizational research lends quantitative respectability to the notion that goal setting is useful. In a roundup of research on goal-setting programs, it was found that companies that introduced systematic goal-setting programs enjoyed an average 39% increase in productivity. Interestingly, the size of the benefit varied dramatically among the companies with the key-differentiating factor being the amount of management support. In those companies where top management lent strong support to the goal-setting initiative, there was an average 57% increase in productivity while in those companies where there was little top-management support, the increase was a paltry 6%.

So what practical advice is there for individuals...