Winners rarely die at the finish line. They reach their goal and can enjoy their achievement afterwards.
The other day we went to an amusement park with my team. There was a boxing machine and one of my colleagues played with it. It seemed to be fun just to try something I would never do elsewhere. I am not that punching type of guy. I inserted the coin and hit the ball which curved up and the display showed the power I used. It was much less compared to the one my fellow colleague had achieved some minutes earlier. The know-how was revealed, I had to imagine that I punched over the ball. If I just want to hit the ball, my fist stops as it reaches the surface. If my fist keeps moving as if it is going through the entire ball or hitting through the wall, the strength I reach the ball with is significantly bigger and therefore the result is way better. I almost doubled the power I used for my second try. I needed to slow down only after I hit the ball. Just as Usain Bolt starts slowing down only after reaching the finish line.
When it comes to business goals, life keeps going after achieving them. Simon Sinek explained that business is an infinite game while we play it according to the rules of a finite game. If you reach your goal by sacrificing everything for the future, you’ll have nothing at the end. So goals are not the ultimate sense of the game, they just give you feedback whether you’re on the right track. You can easily meet your goals and go bankrupt, or you can miss your goals and have a positive impact on people.
That’s why there are many systems and approaches to goals. There is the OKR that stands for objectives and key results. Then you can pay attention to setting S.M.A.R.T. goals which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. They are useful and have their role, but you should never let them become your meaning of life. Don’t get me wrong. Goals are essential in your business operation, because if you measure something you can manage that something. But reaching the maximum allowed speed on the highway rarely makes us satisfied, yet it shows us that we can get to our destination the fastest possible way. While being in a traffic jam on that same highway can still be the fastest possible route. We need something more general than just metrics. You simply need to go beyond your goals which are for the short term. We need a well working system that creates sustainable operation for the long run.
When asking employees how they feel when they reach their goals, they feel nothing special most of the time. Why is that? Well, either they don’t get a bonus for that, or it is just a metric out of the many other metrics there. They do not relate to the goal. For a goal to be inclusive, there must be an emotional bond. If your goal is purely intellectual, your experience of getting there will remain intellectual. You understand it, nod once and move on.
To keep up with your mission, you need to keep things moving. You cannot be customer centric in May only. You cannot have a start-stop approach. You need an ever-working system.
Why is a system better than goals for the long run? A system ensures that even if you miss your goal, you keep going on towards your vision. So what are the differences between a system and a goal?
Having a system means you have the routines in your organisation that enable your company to run its operation the right way and also keep up the pace which is required to surpass the current level of performance. You can establish the culture of improvement at every stage and you get the ever expanding spiral of growth.
Let’s take the example of choosing a school for your child. There are several types of schools out there and there are rankings that try to describe the schools somehow. Then you hear horrible stories about elite schools or charming, human oriented stories about regular schools. And after all you get the wisdom that it all depends on the teacher. That’s why many parents try to get to know the teacher when they are choosing the next school for their child. Getting “the good teacher” becomes their goal. But the relation between former students and the teacher has little relevance to the relation between your child and the teacher. Also, the teacher can leave the school for whatever reason. If so, you are left alone with your choice. Instead, you could choose a system, an institution that somehow assures that whoever will be your child’s teacher, they are up to a standard that reflects your needs. By this, you are not dependent on one particular goal you might not be achieving, but you will have a stable system that serves your needs for the long run.
