"Definite goals produce definite results. Indefinite goals don't just produce indefinite results. They produce no results at all." -- Paul J Meyer
In his book The Game Of Work, Charles Coonradt talks about the various reasons why people will pay to work harder then they'll work at work.
You know what he's talking about--it's the way the same guy who grumbles about getting up at 7am for his 9 to 5 job, and about his 45 minute commute will get up at 4 am to drive 2 hours to go skiing in the freezing cold or flyfish in frigid waters.
He outlines a number of qualities that we find in games and other recreation that both makes it more fun as well as motivates us to work harder.
He outlines 10 things a goal must be to be both effective and motivating.
By effective, I mean the goal will actually make a difference in your life or your business.
By motivating, I mean the goal makes you feel encouraged and excited to do the goal, rather than discouraged or afraid.
1. Goals must be written. Writing a goal keeps it in front of us, keeps it from changing, and forces us to start accounting for it. A goal we don't write down that is just in our minds is a goal we are never accountable to try to achieve. And that means it will probably never happen. Also, if we write down the goal and our plan for how to get it, we can see a clear, open path to the thing we want.
2. Goals must be your own. Part of why we play harder than we work is because in play, it's my hobby, my team, my sport. We'll never work as hard on a goal if we just think it's something our "manager" wants. The more a goal is tied to an individual person's wants and needs, the more motivating it will be.
3. Goals must be positive. When they decide the winner in a basketball game, nobody cares who missed the most shots. Even if one team only hit one out of every four shots they put up, if they scored more baskets, they're going to win. If you state the goal in negative terms, like "I want to stop eating so much," or "I want to lose less inventory to breakage," it puts the focus on something negative that we're afraid of. And if we're thinking about negative things we're afraid of, that's discouraging and demotivating. Instead, we should find a way of saying the good thing we do want, instead of the bad thing we don't want. So we might say, "I want to eat the right amounts of healthy, delicious foods," or "I want to increase the amount of inventory that makes it through the quality inspection."
4. Goals must be measurable and specific. From the book:
How much, how many, and by when? If you can't measure it, how will you know you've achieved it? Even intangible goals need tangible indicators. If you have a goal to be more patient, count how many times you raise your voice in a month. If the numbers drop, your patience is increasing. Unless your goal reflects how much, how many, by when, and by whom, you really don't have legitimate goals.
5. Goals must be stated in inflation-proof terms. Coonradt says a lot of people have been suckered in to thinking they were winning the game when really something had changed in the pricing. For example, when there was a paper shortage in the 80's, many businesses actually fell behind in market share because they were seduced into a false sense of security because they were posting higher profits. Those businesses that measured success in tonnage sold rather than profits had a better idea of where they stood relative to prior performance. Goals should be based on factors that are as constant as possible.
6. Goals must be stated in the most visible terms available. Goals must be measured in something you can see. Percentages, for example, are often too vague. Telling your employees we need a loss percentage of 15% might not mean much to somebody who doesn't think that way. Telling them we need to have less than $5,000 in losses might be a little clearer, but clearest of all would be to say, "We need to collect $6,000." That's like telling your team, "We need to score 30 points." It's straightforward, and everybody can understand the goal. Can you imagine telling a basketball team, "Guys, we need to increase our scoring percentage by 60% in the second half?" They'd scratch their heads. Tell them how many baskets to make to win, and they're on it.
7. Goals must contain a deadline. From the book:
If you don't have a deadline, you don't have a goal. Goals say how much, how many, and by when. The most exciting play in all of sports occurs in that last two minutes before the clock runs down. Deadlines are what make a student who never figured out how to get out of bed during a semester to find the energy to stay up all night studying for a midterm. Deadlines account for forty percent of the money raised in any telethon being raised in the last 20 percent of the time. A goal without a deadline is merely a philosophical statement.
8. Goals must allow for personality changes. And the person who has to change is us.
You cannot, for example, become a great skier if you have a strong fear of injury. Usually, people keep doing the things they do, and keep getting the results they always get. They only change when a crisis comes--a man who has always done the same things and earned about the same salary all his life, might suddenly be forced to find means of generating more income when divorce or family illness forces him to. Those things make him want to do things he never wanted to do before. However, we don't have to wait for trauma to make us want to change--goals can do the same thing. If a goal is something we want badly enough, we will step up to the plate and make the changes in our lives and personalities that make that goal possible. Otherwise, we'll fall back into our old ways. People who say, "That's just the way I am," are people who are more interested in justifying themselves than in having better things for themselves. People can change, and they do when the need is great enough.
9. Goals must contain an interrelated statement of benefits. Goals and benefits go together. He goes back to old adage of making sure there's a WIIFM--What's In It For Me?
WIIFM explains the why to people. Anybody, when asked to do something unusual or out of the ordinary, wants to know why. They are not as interested in the how. Too often we think communication is poor when we are trying to shove the how down someone's throat when they are still waiting to hear the why. But if we can clearly define the why, then we will have the kind of performance we want and the how will pretty much take care of itself.
Too often we think our communications are not being received or that people are resistant to our requests. This happens most often when we are trying to shove something down someone's throat when they still don't understand why it's important. The great paradox is that when something didn't get done, we go back and ask, "Why didn't you do it?"
These benefits might be something inherent in the goal itself (trying to hit a higher bonus level, so everyone gets paid more), or it might be a benefit the manager chooses to give the store if it hits a certain goal (such as a casual day or buying lunch on the store or giving employees a full day of instead of two half days).
10. Goals must be realistic and attainable. When I was a kid, I was always confused when I watched football. I never understood why the teams didn't try for a touchdown on every play. The goal was less than 100 yards away, and if they hit it they would get 6 points. Why not go for it every time, instead of just trying to gain a few yards?
Coonradt talks about Woody Hayes, one of the great legends of college football. Hayes had the opposite idea. His idea was "Three yards and a cloud of dust." His goal was to do whatever it took to get three yards on every play. With that attitude, he dominated Big 10 football for decades. The three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust attitude will get you further than any instant accomplishment or get-rich-quick scheme.
Sometimes we wish there was one big thing we could do, all at once, that would get us everything we want. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like that. We don't train babies to pole-vault--we concentrate on helping them crawl. Once they've got that, then we work on walking.
It's the same way with us. We need to have big goals, but those should be broken down into small, attainable ones. Not necessarily easy--babies learning to walk fall down--but something that is doable.
Hope this helps!
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