Episode 83 - 4 critiques to the idea of “goal setting” in companies

A little upfront warning. In a good Popperian sense: a critique is aimed at improving something, not at throwing it out. I am not suggesting to NOT set goals.

Anyway here are the 4 critiques

1. The future is unpredictable
   
   1. Setting a goal is kinda predicting
      
2. Sticking to the goal is counterproductive
   
   1. People spend time energy and ideas trying to pursue something that in the end will have to be changed once it’s really really clear that it cannot be obtained
      
3. The goal doesn’t contain the ideas you need to make progress
   
   1. The goal doesn’t contain the info on how to make progress
      
   2. Example: I want to loose 10 pounds.
      
      1. Nothing in that statement tells me how to approach and what to do and why
         
4. A goal tends to distract attention from making real progress now
   
   1. It is much easier to disagree about something in the future than about something in the present (many more options, far less testable, also less concrete)
      
   2. The goal should serve as a means to criticise what you are doing now
      
   3. What you want to do now (and how and why) is much more important, and there should the focus be on. Goals can be used as criticism
      
   4. Goals sometimes serve as religions that allow to forget about the question “what to do next?”. As long as we can indulge in the beauty of our long term destination, that seems to serve as a temporary relief. However, temporary reliefs are not what we are after, we are after figuring out what to do next (and how and why)