Resolution vs Goal
Imagine you're a consultant to the New Year's Resolution industry. Your clients are a deeply dysfunctional bunch. Every January, they proudly announce their resolutions. Two weeks later, most have already veered off plan, and by mid-spring, they may not even remember having a resolution at all. [...] If these were goals, mind you, we'd all consider ourselves utter failures, but with our resolutions, we get a pass. So how do you make sure your business is setting goals rather than resolutions?
What's fun about goals is the end point, the completion. If your goal is to "grow sales by 13% in the Southeast region," and you nail it, you're ecstatic. What's fun about resolutions, on the other hand, is the announcement. Think of a stereotypical offsite meeting where a team has the sudden epiphany: What we really need to do is "Amaze the Customer!" That's a resolution...
[...] your organization's culture will often determine what's a resolution and what's a goal. Some cultures are strong enough to make ambiguous, unenforceable behaviors possible. [...] So if you want your own New Year's resolution to become a viable goal, you need to surround yourself with resolution achievers.
It's true. I was reminded today by my coworker to eat only half of my lunch order. That's my New Year resolution/goal of the year. They also reminded me yesterday about my goal to challenge myself in my preaching style while I was planning for an upcoming camp.
How much resource do we spend on developing an effective company culture? Or church culture?
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Labels: Management, Reflection
