Black and White Goals

When you want change for an organization or for your self, it can help to set "B&W" goals.  These are goals that leave no room for interpretation, no room for "this will be good enough".  Instead of goals such as, "I'll exercise more", the goal should be "I'll walk at least 10,000 steps per day as measured by my iPhone or my electronic pedometer which (DARN IT!) synchs to a website so that my results are automatically documented."  This yet another of the many lessons I've gained from the fantastic book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath.

In the case of organizational change, such as the large project I've been alluding to in my last few blog postings, I need to carefully set "B&W" goals because some people have been pushing the project to skip some of the steps that all the experts know are VITAL to succeed.  We can't get to the endpoint and skip these steps any easier than a farmer can reap a harvest without first planting seeds.  So I need to portray these intermediate steps as black and white goals.  I need to say that, "This is the process to get to the endpoint, the ONLY process that gets to the endpoint.  No steps can be skipped or the process is guaranteed to fail and here is why."  If I'm clear and consistent that there is no other way, and can teach those who are pushing hardest why this is the way things are, and if I make the steps absolutely black and white, I might be better able to eliminate any "wiggle room" about how we will approach the work.