A goal or objective is a projected state of affairs that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve—a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.
A desire or an intention becomes a goal if and only if one activates an action for achieving it (see goal-oriented).
It is roughly similar to purpose or aim, the anticipated result which guides action, or an end , which is an object, either a physical object or an abstract object, that has intrinsic value.
Goal
Main article: Goal settingGoal-setting ideally involves establishing specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-targeted objectives. Work on the theory of goal-setting suggests that it can serve as an effective tool for making progress by ensuring that participants have a clear awareness of what they must do to achieve or help achieve an objective. On a personal level, the process of setting goals allows people to specify and then work towards their own objectives — most commonly financial or career-based goals. Goal-setting comprises a major component of Personal development.
Short-term goals
Short-term goals expect accomplishment in a short period of time, such as trying to get a bill paid in the next few days. The definition of a short-term goal need not relate to any specific length of time. In other words, one may achieve (or fail to achieve) a short-term goal in a day, week, month, year, etc. The time-frame for a short-term goal relates to its context in the overall time line that it is being applied to. For instance, one could measure a short-term goal for a month-long project in days; whereas one might measure a short-term goal for someone’s lifetime in months or in years. Planners usually define short-term goals in relation to a long-term goal or goals.
Personal goals
Individuals can set personal goals. A student may set a goal of a high mark in an exam. An athlete might walk five miles a day. A traveler might try to reach a destination-city within three hours. Financial goals are a common example, to save for retirement or to save for a purchase.
Managing goals can give returns in all areas of personal life. Knowing precisely what one wants to achieve makes clear what to concentrate and improve on, and often subconsciously prioritizes that goal.
Goal setting and planning ("goalwork") promotes long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses intention, desire, acquisition of knowledge, and helps to organize resources.
Efficient goalwork includes recognizing and resolving any guilt, inner conflict or limiting belief that might cause one to sabotage one's efforts. By setting clearly-defined goals, one can subsequently measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. One can see progress in what might have seemed a long, perhaps impossible, grind.
Achieving personal goals
Achieving complex and difficult goals requires: focus, long-term diligence and effort. Success in any field requires forgoing excuses and justifications for poor performance or lack of adequate planning; in short, success requires emotional maturity. The measure of belief that people have in their ability to achieve a personal goal also affects that achievement.
Long term achievements rely on short-term achievements. Emotional control over the small moments of the single day makes a big difference in the long term.
One formula for achievement reads A=IM where A = achievement, I = intelligence, and M = motivation. When motivation equals zero, achievement always equals zero, no matter the degree of intelligence. Similarly for intelligence: if intelligence equals zero, achievement always equals zero. The higher the combination of both intelligence and the motivation, the higher the achievement.
Goal management in organizations
Organizationally, goal management consists of the process of recognizing or inferring goals of individual team-members, abandoning no longer relevant goals, identifying and resolving conflicts among goals, and prioritizing goals consistently for optimal team-collaboration and effective operations.
For any successful commercial system, it means deriving profits by making the best quality of goods or the best quality of services available to the end-user (customer) at the best possible cost. Goal management includes:
- Assessment and dissolution of non-rational blocks to success
- Time management
- Frequent reconsideration (consistency checks)
- Feasibility checks
- Adjusting milestones and main-goal targets
Morten Lind and J.Rasmussen distinguish three fundamental categories of goals related to technological system management:
- Production goal
- Safety goal
- Economy goal
An organizational goal-management solution ensures that individual employee goals and objectives align with the vision and strategic goals of the entire organization. Goal-management provides organizations with a mechanism to effectively communicate corporate goals and strategic objectives to each person across the entire organization. The key consists of having it all emanate from a pivotal source and providing each person with a clear, consistent organizational-goal message. With goal-management, every employee understands how their efforts contribute to an enterprise's success.
An example of goal types in business management:
- Consumer goals: this refers to supplying a product or service that the market/consumer wants
- Product goals: this refers to supplying a product outstanding compared to other products—perhaps due to the likes of quality, design, reliability and novelty
- Operational goals: this refers to running the organization in such a way as to make the best use of management skills, technology and resources
- Secondary goals: this refers to goals which an organization does not regard as priorities
See also
- Big Hairy Audacious Goal
- Decision making software
- Direction of fit
- GOAL Agent Programming Language
- Goal modeling
- Goal Programming
- Goal-Question-Metric (GQM)
- Goal-Setting Theory
- Goal Theory
- Life planning
- Management by objectives
- Polytely
- Strategic management
- Strategic planning
- SWOT Analysis
- Regulatory Focus Theory
- The Jackrabbit Factor: Why You Can (book)
References
Further reading
- Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox. The Goal:
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