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Slacker Manager

The hopeful elimination of goals

by David Zinger on October 25th, 2007

Just for the fun of it with Dr. Z.

Quickly make a choice. Do you want to live with hope or with goals?

 goals.jpg

Some goals are big and hairy but why have hairy goals when you can have bald hope?

Dr. Z. encourages you to have hope rather than goals. Because who ever wants to hear someone say to them, “you haven’t got a hope” while goals can be found at any hockey rink or on any to-do list.

Perhaps you have heard of Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs)!

Collins and Porras, in Built to Last, defined a BHAG as:

A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines.” (Collins and Porras, 1996).

Dr. Z recommends just the opposite - a SBEH - Small Bald Easy Hope.

Here are the 4 benefits of SBEHs:

  • Small: When you look at the end of small you find the word all - small is all you need.
  • Bald: Keep the hair out of your eyes and develop the eagle eye of the Bald Eagle.
  • Easy: Easy does it. Why make work more audacious than it already is? Also easy hopes will give you plenty of time to goof off because if you stay with hope you really don’t have to do anything but keep your hope alive.
  • Hope: Why set goals if you haven’t got a hope? Also goal is a couple of reversed vowels away form “gaol” the word used for jail. Don’t be a prisoner of goals. If you dissect the word hope you have the word “hop” and letter “e.” If you say the two parts together really fast it sounds like happy :) - perhaps hope is the true path to happiness.

So rather than state : My BHAG is be the top widget guy in the world go with hope.

Here is a hope statement. I hope I can keep working with widgets and have enough money left at the end of the day to buy a latte.

I hope you enjoyed the post and if you keep hitting posts I am hopeful that you’ll never score a goal!

Picture Credit: Play Like The Dickens by http://www.flickr.com/photos/ok6/348923522/

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