One of many comments on Annelis and my own blogg series about goals was this one: “What are your thoughts on results vs goal oriented work?”
This question came from Ken Skoog, growth manager at Wise group.
That reminds me of a comment my ex manager Lotta got after she had come up with an idea that would benefit her American employer.
”Yes, that’s a good idea for the company, but it’s not going to help my bonus” her colleague said. That was the end of it.
If you have worked in a goal oriented company you may have been in the same situaiton. I could both see and feel her frustration. Neither of them doubted the value to the overall organization, and still it did not happen.
This little episode is meant to illustrate the flip side of goal oriented work. Clear individual goals and strong bonuses make people work what you ask for. Predictability increases on the expense of flexibility and innovation. That is why innovative companies have lower clarity.
Brilliant used to have a floorball team called “Brilliant Bolinders”. A sales manager and a production manager were in contention for the title as top scorer. At one point there was talk about them refusing to pass each other. An assist was worth one point, but a goal was worth two. How good do you think that is for the team? This was a fake conflict between good friends, but it still works as an example of the difference between goal oriented and result oriented work. Result orientation is to consider the customer, the company, society and owners.
When Volvo and Mitsubishi developed the joint platform for V40 and Carisma they had a conflict. The engineers from Volvo were result oriented. Whenever they had a new idea they had to think of the typical Volvo end customer. How would this change benefit them?
Mitsubishi is a more hieararchical and cost oriented company. Their engineers were goal oriented. The were simply not allowed to stray from the plan.
My perception is that the result oriented Volvo has been more innovative than Mitsubishi, and that they have produced better cars. Also, Volvo does sell clearly more cars today than Mitsubishi does.
My interpretation is that clear individual goals are something for mature companies in mature industries. Goal orientation creates predictibility at the expense of flexibility and innovation. We have touched on that previously in this series. This creates cost advantage but if you want flexibility and innovation, results oriented work is better.
And yes, I would much rather work at a result oriented company like Volvo than a goal oriented one, like Mitsubishi.
How about you?
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