I have never been a fan of goals and objectives; I find them pie in the sky, arbitrarily selected, feel good, bullet point pipe dreams that have little to do with actual improvement. Finally, a book that agrees with me, and in Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
, Richard Rumelt discusses why goals and objectives are insufficient when improvement is desired and how to properly implement change.
Ok, goals and objectives do have some value, but they cannot stand alone. Goals and objectives by themselves are nothing more than unobtainable milestones along an unbuilt road.
I might seem a little harsh in my characterization of goals and objectives, but after years of being told to create goals and watch good things happens, I have come to despise goals and the think good things mentality. Why? Simple, it is a fallacy. It is an untruth repeatedly told to sell a product and help people temporarily feel better about themselves and their businesses.
Goals, objectives and thinking good thoughts are only the starting point; whereas, many teach they are the end point. To go from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow requires action; improvement requires action. Now couple goals, objectives and thinking good thoughts with action, then I am on board, and I will be the captain of that ship.
Good Strategy Bad Strategy finally gave me the answer to “How do I go from creating my goal to reaching my goal?” The answer is a set of actions resulting from a developed strategy.
The book is designed for business, but let’s start simple – New Year’s Resolutions. How many people make better fitness their New Year’s Resolution? A quick search online shows losing weight and improving fitness are top resolutions every year. Why are they top resolutions every year? Because the resolutions are rarely obtained.
I do not make New Year’s Resolutions, but losing weight and improving my fitness level have been a goal of mine for a while. I would run occasionally and play in soccer leagues; yet, I was still a little overweight and did not have the fitness level I wanted.
I no longer want to improve my fitness level and lose weight, because at the time of writing this article, I am getting fit and losing weight. Why? Because I created a strategy when I first started reading Good Strategy Bad Strategy, and I am completing a simple set of actions from that strategy.
To reach my fitness and weight goal, I completed Richard Rumelt’s kernel of good strategy.
The first step is to Diagnosis the challenge; my challenge/goal/objective was to improve fitness and lose weight.
From there, I identified my Guiding Policy; I needed to exercise more and eat healthier.
Finally, I created Coherent Actions to resolve the Diagnosis. To create a set of Coherent Actions, I used what I call the How Process. From the Guiding Policy, I asked “how”. After answering the question, I asked “how” again. I kept this how and answer process until I arrived at a set of Coherent Actions.
To walk through the process, I asked myself “How will I exercise more?” I decided to run. Then, I asked myself “How will I run?” Two miles a day. Next, I asked myself “How will I run two miles a day?” Answer, on a treadmill.
Simple as that, I started with my Diagnosis to improve fitness and created a strategy to run two miles a day on a treadmill. Through the same progress, I started eating healthier by increasing my fiber intake, decreasing my sugar intake and limiting fried foods to once a month.
As you now know, good strategy is essential to implementing change and reaching your goals and objectives. Of course developing solid business strategy can be more difficult and in-depth than improving my fitness level and losing weight, but the strategy development process is the same.
Richard Rumelt’s Good Strategy Bad Strategy opened a window into an area of development and planning I had not previously looked into. His book significantly expands on the limited discussion of strategy presented in this article. I highly recommend Good Strategy Bad Strategy if you want to learn how to improve your business or yourself.
Aaron
www.aaronsilverman.com
www.ss-investments.net
www.scdistressedhomes.com
