Establishing Goals

For my course Business Information Systems, I was reviewing the chapter called Strategic Planning.  In one section they cover Establishing Goals, which is a topic I am highly interested in because many of my ideas are all over the map.  I have a lot of enthusiasm and energy in life.

Well in this they define goal exactly as "a specific result that must be achieved to reach an objective" (Reynolds 39) and later state that an "objective states what must be accomplished and the associated goals specify how to determine whether the objective is being met" (Reynolds 39).

Personally, this got me thinking about defining an objective and goals on how to achieve that goal.  For example, one objective I wanted to do is certify basic proficiency in Korean language and the goal would be to pass TOPIK Level 2.  To achieve the goal of passing TOPIK Level 2, I would have to pass practice examinations to build confidence in my ability to pass the real exam.  And in order to pass practice examinations, I would have to review some Korean and memorize vocabulary with flash cards and reference sentences, review grammar, and increase my listening comprehension ability.

Thus if my sense is correct, a goal seems to be both the vehicle and routes it takes to get to the destination which is the objective.  There may be a variety of vehicles and routes it takes to get to the destination, which once plotted can be measurable in the success as well as the time it takes to apply the goal to get to the objective (destination).

The text goes on to say another thing interesting: "A key role in management is to recognize and drop goals that are no longer relevant.  They also must recognize and resolve conflicting goals to avoid having the organization work at cross purposes" (Reynolds 39).  I would add this would also apply to personal self management as well.  Some people may have too many goals, but many goals do not lead to a destination, conflict with each other, or become irrelevant.

References

• Reynolds, George W. Information Technology for Managers. Boston: Cengage Learning, Inc., 2009.