Did you ever set ambitious goals only to have them not only fail to drive progress but also leave demoralized employees in their wake? Even worse, you don't know why the endeavor failed.
In this episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement, co-hosts Professor Mohamed Saleh and John Dyer discuss the complexities of team goal setting. The continuous improvement experts outline how poorly thought-out goals can actually hinder team progress, and more importantly, they present strategies to foster greater team success.
The conversation begins by noting that it is important to distinguish between distal goals and proxy goals, and to set goals accordingly. Distal goals are ambitious, but long-term goals. In a hospital setting a distal goal may translate to eliminating hospital-acquired infections. In a manufacturing setting, it may be achieving 100% first-pass yield. Proxy, or milestone goals (or as Dyer calls them, celebration points), are shorter-term, realistic goals.
Asking teams to accomplish a distal goal in six months is asking for trouble. "For teams and team effectiveness, proxy goals are critical, because people need to know if they're winning or losing, and they need to know that they're making progress," Saleh says. An unrealistic goal, on the other hand, "often leads to burnout, and sometimes, even employee well-being starts to deteriorate."
In short, goal setting should include both realistic proxy goals as well as more ambitious distal goals.
Other topics they address include:
Honesty: The experts emphasized the need for a culture that recognizes the importance of being honest with metrics. Otherwise, goals could incent the wrong behaviors. "The last thing you'd want to have happen is for people to start fudging the data in order to hit those proxy goals," Dyer says. He cites as an example not reporting injuries if the goal is around safety when, in fact, the injuries should be part of tracking progress.
Goal Design: Does the goal create competition or collaboration? "If it's going to create competition, then you have to really focus on how to create shared goals," Saleh says.
Moreover, there's a danger to competition, added Dyer. "Sabotage is real if you think you're in competition where there's winners and losers."
Number of Goals: Saleh and Dyer don't cite an optimal number of proxy goals but say too many drive a lack of clarity and lack of focus. "I'm not saying take things off the radar from a performance standpoint," Saleh says. "You need to understand your performance on a holistic level, but if you're trying to move the needle, too many metrics have horrible consequences."
Rethink Your Goal: Consider goal setting based on process or culture improvement rather than outcome improvement, the podcast hosts suggest. Dyer cited an interview with a golf pro that he watched recently. "He said that he doesn't focus on the next shot. He focuses on the process of swinging the club, and he knows that as long as he follows that process, he'll get a good shot. So, he's not focused on the outcome. He's focused on improving the process of swinging the club."
