kpis

In 2009 Harvard Business School published a draft paper entitled "Goals Gone Wild", and its abstract is quite concerning. For example: "We identify specific side effects associated with goal setting, including a narrow focus that neglects non-goal areas, a rise in unethical behavior, distorted risk preferences, corrosion of organizational culture, and reduced intrinsic motivation." Are we doomed? Is all goal setting harmful? Interestingly, I came across this paper while reading Measure What Matters, which argues the exact opposite point -- that OKRs provide a meaningful way to improve the productivity of an organization. The paper starts by listing a series of examples of goal setting gone wrong: Sears' auto repair in the early 1900s over charging customers to meet hourly billable goals; Enron's sales targets based solely on volume and revenue and not profit; and Ford Motor Company's goal of shipping a car at a specific target price point which resulted in significant safety failures. The paper then provides specific examples of how goals can go wrong: By being too specific and causing other important features of a task to be ignored -- for example shipping on a specific deadline but ignoring testing adequately to achieve that deadline. By being…