I once asked him [William Raspberry] how he worked. Did he have some kind of system? Choose his topics in advance? Stockpile “evergreen” columns, unrelated to the day’s news, for mornings, when inspiration missed its scheduled appointment?
Not really, he replied. He just came into the office, thought for a while, and got a sense of what was the right column for that day. Often, he told me, he wasn’t quite sure what he thought about the topic until he was well into the writing. I think those were the columns he enjoyed most because they allowed him to look at his subject from all sides.
–Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist
How many things do we accomplish without goals? Breathing, for one. Dreams. Joy. Serendipity. Inspiration.
Maybe goals have no inherent value. Maybe goals generate barriers and blinders as well as drive and tenacity. Maybe we need to give goals a second look.
As a learner and, I hope, a leader, I value the process of setting goals. I’m working on this blog today—one of my goals. Would I have worked on it anyway, without making it a goal? I think so. I wear my goals like a loose garment. I’ve come to learn that I don’t accomplish things because I set goals. Goals simply give me a useful framework, a tool like this computer, to move forward. I don’t make progress because I have goals, any more than I generate ideas because I have a computer.
How many useful insights and accomplishments might I stumble upon today that arrived without demand, or outside of my goals? Is it possible that we put too much capital into goals, a sort of Puritan fear that without goals we’ll lie about in dissipation and sloth? I’m suggesting spending more time on goal tending—keeping our tendency to generate reveals our weaknesses as well as our drive. And benchmark goals, I want to retire comfortably by the time I’m 50, may restrict our need for flexibility. Ever set a very concrete goal, get there, and ask yourself, what now? We can tend our goals and start to value goals that are more qualitative. Rather than “I’m going to this place,” something more like “This is how I want to travel.”
After all, things change between setting any goal and reaching it, including our interests as well as external circumstances. And the more specific—and therefore measurable—any goal, the more likely we are to miss opportunities ‘by the side of the road’ as it were.
Qualitative goals focus us on moving toward possibilities. I’d like to feel more connected to my children every day is a qualitative goal. That’s very different from a benchmark goal like I will spend at least one hour playing with my kids every Saturday. The second goal may be more appealing because we can check it off. But checking things off as a sort of mega-goal may not be for the best. Completing a to-do list has utility; it does not always add value.
I want to stop thinking about getting in shape and feel like I’m doing something about it is far different from I’m going to work out at the gym 3.5 hours per week. It may feel vague. Perhaps making goals concrete and measurable implies a distrust in our own creativity. We limit our power to innovate when goals act like straitjackets. We can have smaller, more manageable incremental goals that help support development.
We give trust, connection, and courage a place to take root when we tend to our present energy and focus on relationships, letting our goals morph to meet the changes we miss if we’re blinded by too tight a focus. Time and again, I’ve seen goal tending short-circuit otherwise creative, flexible supervisors and executives. As the goals supplant new possibilities, they become defensive, reactive, and rigid. It’s as if the goal has the lead role in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
If you decide to try goal tending, you’ll experience discomfort. Sort of goal withdrawal. It’s okay. Just mental new shoes. And any goal that excludes possibilities, new ideas, or that creates anxiety, may not be serving you well. Instead, you may be serving the goal. Take charge of your goals; don’t let your goals take charge of you.
For you audiophiles, give a listen to http://learningchaos1243.audello.com/podcast/1/
Enjoy!!
Thanks very much, Charlotte.
I love the idea of replacing what I want to do with the kind of person I want to be. I guess one of the qualities I want to embrace is to not mistake measurement for understanding.
Be.
Mac
I love this, Mac.
There are too many KPIs in the world that make people do twisted things they would otherwise not have done, and make them not do necessary things because they are not measured on these other things.
What do I want to DO should be replaced with what kind of person do I want to BE.
A person who wants a real connection with their children doesn’t need to check time with them off a list. They need to listen with curiosity when their kids talk to them. Be attentive over the dinner table and not think about work, phone in hand.