Ready, Aim … Fail is an article I’ve had in my bag for awhile; in fact, even pointed it out in a conversation in twitter. It was in the ‘Executive’ section of the paper, but there is a bunch of cautionary information in it that apply to testers as well. Especially if you are in a metrics-oriented environment.

  • …industry analysts argue that one of most damaging things he company did was set that goal.
  • As a result, GM … fell victim to a goal
  • Among psychologists, the link between setting goals and achievement is one of the clearest there is, with studies on everyone from woodworkers to CEOs showing that we concentrate better, work longer, and do more if we set specific, measurable goals for ourselves.
  • But a few management scholars are now looking deeper into the effects of goals, and finding that goals have a dangerous side.
  • The argument is not that goal setting doesn’t work — it does, just not always in the way we intend. “It can focus attention too much, or on the wrong things…”
  • Goal setting has been treated like an over-the-counter medication when it should really be treated with more care, as a prescription-strength medication
  • Goals, they feared, might actually be taking the place of independent thinking and personal initiative
  • A 2004 paper on what people do when they fall just short of their goals. .. what they do is lie to make up the difference.
  • Narrow corporate goals can keep employees from asking important questions that they otherwise might.
  • … stretch goals are most likely t be pursued by desperate, embattled companies — the sort least equipped to deal with the costs of ambitious failures.
  • Most concentrate so hard on the goal that they become blind to other information…
  • … goals with rewards, if not carefully calibrated, can short-circuit our intrinsic enthusiasm for a task — or even interrupt our learning process.
  • … goals can’t protect us from ourselves.
  • … sometimes nothing works like a goal. But ensuring that it doesn’t backfire requires care.
  • Although simple numerical goals can lead to bursts of intense effort in the short term, they ca also subvert the longer-term interests of a person or company
  • In work requiring a certain amount of creativity and judgement, the greatest risk appears t lie in overly simplified goals. Reducing complex activities to a bundle of numbers can end up regarding the wrong behaviour …
  • … goals need to be flexible when circumstances change.
  • …we might be better off creating workplaces and schools that foster our own inherent interest in the work.