"WARNING: Organisational Goals Need To Be Set With Caution"

The business development and self help industry has always instructed its participants to form some kind of 'vision' or 'goal' to steer direction towards growth and overall success. Targets, measures or indicators are naturally essential so the company itself can evaluate its current position of either regressing, stagnant or green and growing.

However, what if I was to tell you there is extensive scientific evidence to illustrate that even though goals when properly set are essential to help a business expand and succeed, they also bring along a whole host of other damaging and conflicting behaviours.

Over the years there have been hundreds of studies carried out that clearly signify that setting specific goals influences and boosts the behaviour and drive of a company workforce. The gurus have produced extensive texts on how goals improve performance on an individual and collective level.

What I want to share with you in this short article is that in terms of systems thinking, goal setting and its benefits have been flowered and overshadow the side effects that just don't get published or illustrated in the mainstream.

For instance, did you realize that narrowly focused goals influence the neglect of responsibilities of areas not connected directly to the goal yet limit the progress of the department or even company overall because when this neglect becomes chronic the operational strain causes undue stress, conflict and a perpetual 'hindering' of the so called success that is supposedly being achieved.

Also the rise in 'maverick' style behaviours that will 'do what it takes' to ensure the company, team or individual meets their target and the subsequent accolades. This creates and illuminates the dark side of the human condition with things like secrecy, disguise, lies, manipulation and coercion. This can be experienced by customers along with colleagues alike.

These are only a small fraction of the side effects of goals and goal setting. Ultimately goals, targets, objectives or what ever you want to call them do work to drive behaviour, but what I want to inform you is that a systems thinking perspective is urgently required to ensure company culture is not damaged and the internal structure does not implode and cause an overall demise of the company and its good intentions. So overall this article is a clear health warning in being meticulous when goal setting and driving towards growth and success.

Locke and Latham (2006) reviewed 40 years worth of research linked to goals and goal setting and confirmed that as long as an individual is committed to the task at hand, does not have any conflicting targets and they have the skills and abilities to achieve the goal, then there is a direct linear correlation between goal difficulty and task performance.

However Ordó?ez et al 2009 identified that specific goal setting comes with predictable and powerful side affects. So just like a GP or consultant would in standard practice when prescribing a solution or idea, an awareness and assessment must be made into the possible contra-indications that will lead to these side affects.

One of the many areas that Ordó?ez and her colleagues recognized was that the so called 'customer comes first' adage did not apply at all. In fact one firm of vehicle repair technicians had such specific goals to achieve that they would deliberately deceive customers and lie about how much work the vehicle actually required.

Do you remember the dizzy heights of success for Enron? I am sure their executives do. They were paid huge bonus' based on the revenue generated. As an executive it must of been a dream come true. They were exceptional sales people who were handsomely rewarded for hitting their targets. But they were the wrong targets. Their bonus' should have been based on profit generated, not just revenue. Now Enron are all but a memory.

And what about Ford Motor Company. The auto-motive giants were being closed in on by their foreign competitors so their response was to produce a car "under 2000 lbs and $2000". With tight deadlines many of the mandatory safety checks were bypassed, one of which was something to do with the fuel tank. The crush space was less than 10 inches from the fuel tank which would result on ignition upon impact. And it did. A total of 53 deaths and many injuries caused multiple lawsuits. But the lawsuits in comparison to actually changing the design of the vehicle would result in smaller costs. So they did nothing.

But the press around these matters, especially linked to management and leadership has been very little. Barely anyone knows about them. And thus goal setting keeps its rigid position because everyone believes (because of a parochial perspective) that they are integral to any personal or corporate endeavor.

But the research has now uncovered the fact that incorrectly set goals can systematically damage your organisation. Systems thinking enables you to see the interconnectedness of everything within and external to your company. Its having a level of global or outer awareness that ensures that what you apply internally will have a ripple effect on everything externally.

If we keep a systems thinking perspective (holistic view) the list below of the harm that goal setting can make probably outweighs the benefits.

• Impede on employee performance
• Harm internal and interpersonal relationships
• Contaminate organisational culture
• Cause neglect of important operational procedures that act as the pillars to goals being successfully completed. No or few snags.
• Influence deceitful and unethical behaviour in support of goal attainment.

Now I must clarify that I am not admonishing goals or goal setting because when goals are set properly that work in accordance to how our neurology functions then they make an individual a formidable prospect for themselves and their organisation. But research by Simons and Chabris (1999) and Neisser (1979) has clearly identified that goals can cause 'tunnel vision' and therefore cause 'inattentional blindness'.

Does anyone remember the basketball video played to unassuming audiences with the big black gorilla (or someone at least in an outfit) running across the screen? All the viewers were asked to do was count the amount of passes of the basketball between players. A clear and specific goal. But most people missed this obvious intrusion. This narrow focus has a huge impact on the 'whole' performance of an employee or a team as what is missed is still part of the 'system' and thus can have a negative effect on the 'system'.

Goal setting, and I mean proper goal setting requires responsibility. A goal can be far too narrow and it also can be completely wrong. But many people do not have a systems thinking perspective. We are short sighted and to certain degree lazy. The personal development industry screams 'self-awareness, self awareness' when in fact what we need to combine this with is 'outer-awareness'. But organisations and its leaders need to do this on a collective level. People will not pay attention or see the significance of having outer awareness with just one person jumping up and down screaming. The plastic pollution issue comes to mind here in terms of only a recent recognition of a lack of outer-awareness.

Narrow focus and attention creates one dimensional employees. Staw and Boettger (1990) conducted an excellent study where it got the participants to proof read paragraphs for grammatical and content errors. When one group of participants were told to 'do your best', they were able to notice both grammatical and content errors unlike those who were instructed to focus on just grammatical or content errors.

Leaders or managers often set organisational goals relating to a specific dimension of the business, usually drawn from an identified problem.  (Staw & Boettger, 1990) recognize that goals influence individuals to apply themselves to actions that are valuable only to the goal. This causes the short sightedness of many organisations and lack of attention of the long terms pains associated with the short term gains.

Evaluating a ten year cycle of goal setting and goal attainment will illustrate employee performance is merely a cyclical pattern of behaviours that are bred from the identification of 'symptoms' that come out of short sighted goal setting. The perceived short term gains of overcoming organisational problems only rear their ugly head, often in a different form somewhere down the line. Its perpetual goal setting intended as a 'symptomatic solution'. There is no foundation or long term vision.

So what is the prescription for effective, methodical and conscientious employee performance based on a goal attainment system? First of all things, managers need to have a systems thinking perspective. An understanding of the organisational context of what the goal is and all the multi-faceted ways the goal can effect the organisation. Focusing on just overcoming a problem or closing a gap is dangerous in a whole host of different ways as I have already shared.

Not previously mentioned, goals can cause unhealthy levels of stress. Also if an organisation wants to set goals for its employees, are they equipping them with sufficient resources that compliment their efforts? Also how is the company responding to those employees who miss the mark? Is there a review system, coaching and development not just on a skills requirement but also psychological support?

In accordance to the research of King and Burton 2003, a cautious approach is favoured. A goal should involve the individual and the associated responsibilities but also the bigger system that the individual operates in. They need to be vague and only moderately important. They should not conflict with any other objectives.

In my own consultancy practice, the goal setting aspect for my clients solely revolve around the research within the realms of cognitive psychology and neuroscience. The reason being is we are also a system, a very complex system that has a goal orientated mechanism within it called the brain. It likes instructions or if we are to use the example of a satellite navigation system, a set of co-ordinates. But instead of punching in a post code or a city or road, it likes to know what information there will be that encapsulates the experience of a 'perfect moment'. An indication that tells it that it is happy, successful and does not have a care in the world.

When I say 'it' I mean our subconscious mind. Because its our subconscious mind that does all the calculations to impulse the body to carry out all the appropriate behaviours to enable it to experience its 'perfect moment'. Please take into consideration that our subconscious is an emotional 3 year old that wants to always get its own way but if it is not given something to 'get its teeth into' will resign to operating off its default position which is its blueprint of programs from its first 3 years of existence.

And the worrying thing here is this default blue print is engaged on a subconscious 'auto-pilot', all of which are habits and categorizations that are outside of our conscious awareness. Each of us are all our own self fulfilling prophecies. Only when we engage in activities that bring us more into conscious attention can we operate beyond our subconscious and be our very own authors of reality. And achieve our goals ethically and more importantly...effortlessly. Something I am sure most managers would welcome with open arms.