Goal Setting
by Derek Kahrs
I am often asked to speak to groups about goal setting, either to individuals looking to improve their career or personal situation, or to supervisors looking to increase a team’s productivity. I came up with a short story to put the pieces of the goal setting puzzle together:
A father and his two sons ran a small farm in a rural community. The father had been badly injured just before harvest, so the two sons had been shouldering much of the responsibilities of the farm. When it was time to plow the rows for the seeds to be planted, he said to his sons, “Start at opposite ends of the field and work toward each other. Be sure the trench for the seeds stays four inches deep and whoever reaches the middle first can take the day off tomorrow as a reward.” The two sons were excited, as they now had a new goal in their lives: A four inch deep trench, half the field long, in less time than the other brother. The two sons had two different plows, however. One of the plows moved through the dirt quickly, but often started to come up out of soil and not cut the trench deep enough, so it had to be monitored. The other held true to its depth, but was not as sharp and had to be worked slower. The boys lined up on opposite ends of the field and yelled go. After about an hour, they came in to the house and the father asked “Who won?” Very timidly, the older brother stepped forward. “We don’t know. We both reached the middle at the same time, but since I had to keep checking the plow, my trench looks like a giant snake and I had to restart several times. He finished at the same time, and had a nice straight line, but it was such slow going he was exhausted and could barely keep going. Who gets the day off tomorrow?”
“Neither of you get the day off tomorrow. One of you will mark a goal at the end to walk toward so your lines are even and straight and the other will walk next to you to monitor the depth of the trench you are cutting. No matter which tools you use, you have to trust that the goal you set for yourself at the end of the field is the one consistent factor in the work!”
Effective goal setting is more than coming up with the biggest and best ideas on paper and believing the self help books that say “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.” The boys in the story had the dream of finishing their work first and having the day off. What they failed to realize is you have to stay concentrating on the end goal so you can head straight for it, but at the same time trust the tools and people working with you to aid you in obtaining that goal effectively.