True Goals

I spend a lot of time talking to people about "reaching (their) true goals" - but what does that mean?  

There are 4 components to reaching true goals:

1) Accomplish the objective.  Do what you want to do.  Get it done.  Succeed.  Reach the finish line.  Anyway you want to define it, it's all about figuring out what you want to do and doing it...

Umm - hey, Gregg.  You said there were 4 parts to "reaching true goals."  But number 1 seems to sum it up pretty well.  What are the other pieces? 

Easy:

2) On time.

3) Within budget.

4) And with the right level of quality.

It's a constant struggle.  True goals, done right, is defined in the context of all four quadrants:  What you want to accomplish, by when, at what cost, and with what level of quality.

Accomplishing any subset of those - by my definition - means you haven't reached your true goals.

Let me belabor the point for a minute to, well, make a point:

• I got what I wanted, but later than I needed.  True goals?  No.
• I didn't quite get what I wanted.  TG? No.
• Got it - but it cost more than planned.  Nope.
• Well, I got it, on time, within budget - but it wasn't as good as it should have been.  Strike 4.

Too many organizations take the easy way out.  They don't fully identify what they're trying to accomplish up front, defined by all 4 attributes of the Challenge.  That way, it's easy to claim that you've succeeded... even when you really haven't.

The best result?  Know exactly what your True Goals are before you start - defined as reaching the desired result, on time, within budget, and with the right level of quality - and then go get them.