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:

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