Common Goal Setting Tangles


This table describes the common tangles encountered when developing goals without an explicit grammar. The table is constructed to be read left to right as the following statement: Confusing (x) for (y) creates (z) because (?).   We innocently and usually unconsciously confuse one part for another, creating insidious confusions. Use this table to better understand how your project found itself in its present tangle or to help better focus your defining.
 
 

Confusing 

For 

Creates

Because

Aspirations

Constraints

Blank Checks 
(mistaking Vision for a Boundary)

The aspiration is an infinite boundary, not a definite constraint.

Aspirations

Regulators

Despotism, 
Quality Obsession
 
(mistaking Vision for
Process)

The aspiration is an intention, not an enforceable condition.

Aspirations

Targets

Utopian Targets
(mistaking Vision for
Target)

The aspiration is not meant to be "achieved," targeting it "creates" failure.

Aspirations

Legacies

Emperor's New Clothes (mistaking Vision for Requirements)

The aspiration is never-ending. Achieving it destroys it. 

Constraints

Aspirations

Meaninglessness
(mistaking Boundary for
Vision)

Constraints are boundaries, aspiring to them is trivial.

Constraints

Regulators

Budget Obsession  
(mistaking Boundary for Process)

Constraints are imaginary boundaries, meant to inform not to require.

Constraints

Targets

"Projected" Targets
(mistaking Boundary for
Target)

Constraints disappear when the project ends. Targeting this disappearance is projection, not proper goal setting.

Constraints

Legacies

Spin Doctors 
(mistaking Boundary for Requirements)

Constraints are meant to guide development, not to outlive it.

Regulators

Aspirations

Hopelessness and Despair (mistaking Process for
Vision)

Regulators confine. Aspirations are supposed to inspire. Inspire me with confinement?

Regulators

Constraints

Mindless and

Endless,
Box Bound
(mistaking Process for Boundary)

 

Regulators need constraining. Without constraints, they become mindless and never ending.

Regulators

Targets

Objectless Objective
(mistaking Process for
Target)

Regulators are verbs. This makes the point into "no thing"

Regulators

Legacies

Medium Becomes Message (mistaking Process for Requirements)

Regulators are verbs. This makes the product becomes "no thing"
Targets

Aspirations

Overly Specific, DUMB (mistaking Target for
Vision)

Targets are conditions, they exist for a single moment in time. Aspirations are forever.
Targets

Constraints

Meandering 
(mistaking Target for
Scope)

Targets bound only one end of the pipe. If only the end is bound, the pipe leaks.
Targets

Regulators

Unnecessary Invention and Adaptation
(mistaking Target for
Process)

Targets do not restrain, they encourage a "whatever it takes" attitude.

Targets

Legacies

Fuzzy Specifications
(mistaking Target for Requirements)

Targets do not persist. They are not the object of the project, just the direction of it.

Legacies

Aspirations

Tunnel Vision 
(mistaking Requirement for Vision)

Tend to lose the forest for the trees. Missing essential context.

Legacies

Constraints

Resource Obsession
(mistaking Requirement for Boundary)

Enforcing the borders becomes the purpose of the project.

Legacies

Regulators

Objectiveless

Objectives
(mistaking Requirement for Process)

 

When the Message becomes the Medium, the message becomes pointless.

Legacies

Targets

a Game Without End
(mistaking Requirements for Target)

 The project can't complete until all the after effects of having done the project are complete- a paradox!

 

Copyright ©2000 by David A. Schmaltz - All Rights Reserved

For more information on the Grammar of Goal Setting:

For the full text of David's presentation on the Grammar of Goal Setting, look
here :

For an explicit process description for assigning goals to their proper place, look
here :

For the overheads from the presentation, look
here :
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Thanks, David A. Schmaltz True North pgs, Inc.