The Right and Left Brain Blog

The lack of understanding goals is a critical factor in management errors. We frequently think of goals like sports, where winning is presumably everything.

However even in sports, finances, long-term development, ethics, point spreads etc. can affect the winning goal. For organizations and individuals, the issues are even more complex.

• In most efforts and organizations, there are multiple goals and demands. Prioritization, comparison and measurement become critical issues. If goals are too simple they can ignore many aspects of a situation but if there are too many, there can be a lack of focus. We also frequently focus on measurement and may ignore more subjective goals. Educational goals such as test scores versus social development face this problem every day.

• Short term versus long term goals is the best example where goals may be conflicting. Much of the financial crises in 2008 were a function of short term greed versus long term rationality. I knew there was something wrong with the model when a young very talented graphic artist quit our company to sell mortgages to potentially make twice as much money. He had zero skills, interest, capability or experience in mortgages but the short-term lure was to enticing.

• The level of goals can also change. On one hand goals need to be realistic so that they can be achieved and not strain operational, financial or organizational resources. On the other hand, there needs to be some stretch to provide some challenge and growth. In particular, virtually every organization needs to downsize their goals for the next year or so at least. .

A very complex analytical tool, linear programming, provides a rather simple tool for examining goals. While few people understand the math of linear programming or its applicability, the logical model is very insightful. First, you simply detail the various goals and priorities .Second, you list the constraints. Going through the exercise in even a simple subjective manner forces one to understand the goals, consider the trade-offs and understand the barriers.