Set Goals or Build Systems?

Do you need ambitious goals to achieve great results? Some smart people argue that setting goals is counter-productive.

Many of them take inspiration from a book “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.” Its author is Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comics. His blog post describes the idea in a nutshell: Goals vs. Systems.

The articles contain legitimate criticism of goals:

• You can achieve a goal (say, lose weight) and then return to a status quo.
• Goals may make you miserable if not achieved.
• If you focus on a goal too much, you may miss better opportunities.

Systems, unlike goals, do not have these problems. Instead of having a goal of losing weight, build a system for eating healthy. Instead of having a goal to write a book, write every day. Focus on process instead of the result and outcome will be better.

In the pursuit of sensationalism, these articles create a fake dichotomy. In reality, there is no competition between systems and goals. You do not have to choose. Their relationship is of a different nature.

Systems are tools for achieving goals and goals are tools for improving systems. Goals without systems are frustrating and unsustainable. Systems without goals are pointless bureaucracies.

My job is to build systems that help run the company. For me, a great way to waste time is to work on a system without a clear goal in mind.

Systems are great for driving and maintaining change. This may be good or bad, depending on whether the change is right for you. No free lunch theorem can be loosely applied here. Any system that makes one thing better makes another thing worse. You need to understand what problems you want to solve before building a system.

Understanding what problems you want to solve is having a goal. Clear and ambitious goal motivates you to move in the right direction. A well-designed system helps you achieve a goal.

“Systems vs. goals” argument sounds legitimate because setting good goals is hard. Too often we fail at the very beginning when choosing a goal. It may make the life worse.

A few things to look out for when setting goals:

• One-off goals are often bad. Don’t set a goal of losing weight, set a goal of staying at a healthy weight.
• Binary goals are often bad. Set a range if you can. Bad goal: get 1M visitors to my website. Good goal: 10k visitors — ok, 100k visitors — great, 1M visitors — I am a genius.
• Goals set in stone are often bad. If goal is not achievable anymore or became too easy then change it. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Set good goals, then build systems that help you achieve and maintain them.