Goal Setting With Systems Thinking

Major problems with effective goal-setting

It is an unquestionable fact that if you want to achieve success, the traditional way of setting goals are the route to follow, no matter if you involved in knowledge work, or any other type of work. This is what you have been taught.

If, however, you are involved in knowledge work, there is an alternative. Goals should be set within a systems context. Unless systems thinking is applied, you will be limiting your power to think, to lead, and to achieve. In addition, if you are steadfastly clinging to traditional goal-setting, the problems outlined below are bound to inhibit your effectiveness and performance.

The first problem is the level of think work involved. This type of work is essentially required in knowledge work. When conducting knowledge work with systems thinking, you will be involved in six key think areas. These are to think about thinking, to think purpose, to think emotion, to think system, to think process, and to think achievement.

You will immediately notice that this arrangement of key think areas provides an initial powerful tool to activate your success system. Closely associated with your success system are the following traits: imagination, desire, persistence, determination, enthusiasm, self-discipline and faith, also known as the big seven. Note, however, you are in full control of each of these traits. Hence, they should always be on your mind when you to sit down to work your way through each area.

Since think work is the real hard work, people seldom get involved in a deliberate process of thinking to set their goals. In fact, goals are normally set by engaging in the walking-talking-breathing-doing type of thinking. This type of thinking is also referred to as habitual thinking. You only think you are thinking. In other words, it creates the illusion of thinking.

Thinking on this low level simply entails writing down a few things to do, which are assumed to be goals - to have something on paper. It will put your conscience at ease, and you may even make management happy. The worst case is, however, when goals are not recorded, but committed to memory.

The second problem is that, unless you set goals within the systems context, it will be very difficult to see a goal as part of the big picture. This picture portrays where you are at present, where you are going, how to get there, with what, and when? This in itself is quite a challenge, because it involves vision. Furthermore, if you neglect to consider the inside and outside environments, where your goals will have an impact you could be in serious trouble.

The problem is compounded if you are functioning within an organizational context, where you have, for instance, to answer the following questions:

• when is a goal a goal?
• who sets a goal and who achieves it?
• Ldoes the leader set a goal, and the follower achieves it, or does the follower set and achieve the goal, and the leader supervises its achievement?
• and finally, who is accountable?

The third problem is when you are dealing with only goals to pursue your field of endeavor. You are severely inhibiting your thinking in that you create what is known as a tunnel-effect. While focus is essential for each goal, system implications are ignored, which could lead to an unproductive effort. Since goals are, in effect, dealt with in isolation, relevance is neglected.

The fourth problem is where your focus is only on satisfying your customers. While satisfying your customers is a priority, the matter is not that simple. You see, in the modern world, very few things can be achieved without the cooperation and support of other people. Therefore, if people assisting you are ignorant about what you are trying to achieve, they will not be able to give you the necessary support.

Of even more importance, people will only agree to work with you to pursue your endeavor if they can benefit in some or other way. In other words, their cooperation will depend on how they see their self-interest being served.

The fifth problem is that a distinction is seldom made between output and input goals. It has been established that, with a few exceptions, the focus is always on input only, e.g. human resources, finance, logistics, support, etc. This means you are ignoring the equation for performance, i.e. output over input. The rule in systems thinking is before you can consider inputs, you first have to decide what it is you want to achieve.

The sixth problem is that the requirements of the acronym SMART (Specific, measureable, attainable, relevance and trackable) will only be partially effective. It is very difficult to deal with, for instance, relevance in this situation, because the big picture is not seen.

Finally, lack of vision and purpose is usually a major cause of failure when setting goals. Without the powerful guiding light of vision, success with pursuing your purpose and your goals will be seriously curtailed.

By highlighting the dilemmas with having only goals, does not mean that people are not achieving success. There are many people who are really conscientious about pursuing their goals and have achieved great success, and still many more will do the same.

If you are the only one responsible to set goals, it may be comparatively easy to formulate and even to achieve. You don't have to communicate it to a peer, a follower or a supervisor. However, if you are leading a team, or are a member of a team it is a different situation altogether. Goal-setting then takes on a completely new dimension, because delegating of authority enters the picture.

Systems thinking in goal-setting

What people don't realize is that success can be greatly enhanced if a system and a process form part of the think process. That is why these two components form part of the six key think areas. Therefore, setting goals within the context of systems thinking can increase your effectiveness manifold. There is a proviso, however. The system must be specifically designed to ensure that the think, lead and achieve processes can accommodate your vision, mission, purpose, goals and ensuing activities.

In the system to practice the art to think, to lead and to achieve, goals are set within the framework of a purpose structure design shown in the conceptual diagram. You will notice that several additional and essential key words form integral parts of this design.

These are, for instance, "vision", "mission," "purpose", "goals" and "objectives." Closely associated with these are also the concepts, "key performance areas" (KPAs), "key performance indicators" (KPIs), and "outcomes or deliverables".

I am sure that you are familiar with all of these concepts. As a matter of fact, there are numerous articles and books on leadership, management and personal development where these terms are bandied about. In purpose structure design, however, their meaning and application differ to a great extent from the traditional way of dealing with these concepts.

A major benefit of this design is that a sound basis is created to meet the requirements associated with the acronym SMART within a systems context.

Importance of brainstorming

When designing a purpose structure, brainstorming is invariably an essential tool to generate ideas, always starting with your vision. It is not uncommon to end up with four to five folio pages of ideas, among which could be a vision.

Among these ideas you will, in all probability, find ideas which also could resemble a mission, a purpose, a goal, an objective and so on. To structure these ideas, or sometimes combinations of ideas in a purpose structure format, requires that you must identify which idea or ideas have vision status, mission status, purpose status, etc.

Meaning of the various concepts

An essential requirement for this exercise is that you have to make sure that you are fully conversant with each of the definitions of these concepts. This will assist you to analyze a particular idea to determine its status by comparing it with a particular definition. A strict rule is that you are not allowed to interpret, or to give any other meaning to these definitions, since they are used standards.

It will often happen that you will be able to recognize easily a purpose, a goal or an objective. In other instances, it will be very difficult. You should then interpret the characteristics of the particular idea, compare it with an appropriate definition to determine its status.

The following definitions are of importance.

• A vision is defined in the purpose structure design as follows: it is an imaginative insight into the distant future; to deepen your wisdom of how best to pursue the purpose; by lighting up the road ahead to illuminate goals; make them visible on the way, so that objectives can be achieved within the framework of the purpose structure design.
• A mission defines of your competitive edge to pursue your purpose.
• A purpose is defined as your basic function, reason for being, or right of existence to fulfill a need.
• A goal is defined as an open-ended long-term aim to be pursued in a defined key performance area in pursuit of the purpose.
• An objective is defined as a precise description of a commitment to achieve a result within a specific time and in accordance with a standard in pursuit of a goal.
• A key performance area (KPA) is an idea which may have goal status. The test for goal status is whether you are able to generate either key performance indicators (KPIs) or meaningful objectives. Usually, once you have formulated your purpose, the next step is to either select the KPAs from the results of your brainstorming to formulate goals. You may also decide to start a new brainstorming to generate more ideas.
• A key performance indicator (KPI) is simply an idea which has the potential to set objectives. Generating KPI's is particularly valuable when you are brainstorming to pursue a particular goal in the purpose structure design.

Evaluating your vision, mission and purpose statements

An interesting exercise is to put your vision, mission and purpose statements next to each other to ensure that the focus of each is correct. You will often find if you analyze these statements and remove all the adjectives, irrelevant words and phrases the nucleus of all the statements is the same. What then is the point of having separate statements for your vision, mission and purpose?

Work involved in designing your purpose structure

Designing a purpose structure requires a lot of think work and planning. The time it takes for such a design will depend on the nature and scope of your vision and purpose, and the size of the organization. The time may vary from a few hours to a few days. Because systems thinking is involved, it is very unlikely that your first effort will be correct. You might find that even after the fifth or even sixth effort, you will still have to include minor changes.

Essential design criteria involve, among others, the number of output goals. These vary normally between not less than five, and not more than eleven. If it is less than five, the chances are good that you have not identified all the key performance areas.

If it is more than eleven, the division of key performance areas is too narrow, and you will not be able to set meaningful objectives to pursue each goal. However, you will find no matter how complex pursuing your purpose is, your output goals will normally vary between seven and nine. A goal may have sub-goals, provided it has two or more sub-goals.

Furthermore, the purpose structure is an essential budgeting tool and essential to structure an effective organization.

Your final test is to determine whether your purpose structure will meet the requirements of effectiveness, by pasting it on a wall or writing board. Simply stand back and look at it very critically. Use your imagination to determine whether this is what you should do to pursue your vision.

Recording the results of your thinking

If you are really serious to pursue your vision and purpose, recording of the results of the think process is essential. This record, referred to as the purpose portfolio, is needed to prove performance and accountability.

Recording the activities to pursue your vision, purpose and associated activities in a purpose portfolio requires quite a lot of skill. What's more, to keep the purpose portfolio up-to-date requires each trait of the big seven.

The problem you will encounter is that a purpose portfolio is unfortunately often seen as additional and unnecessary work. If, however, you don't have a purpose portfolio to prove your achievements, what is the point of having a purpose and goals at all?

Conclusion

While traditional goal-setting to achieve success has several benefits, effectiveness can be greatly enhanced if they are set within a well-designed framework. This framework is referred to as the purpose structure design.

Setting goals within the systems contexts entail having a vision, and mission, and where the purpose is the apex of this design. Both output and input goals emanate from the purpose, which then serve as the basis to pursue each goal by achieving objectives.

Without a system and a process, you are severely limiting the possibilities to identify opportunities to be the best you can be. Get involved in think work, build your castles in the air by being visionary, and then ensure that you have a solid foundation - the purpose structure design - on which to build these castles.