Why Goals Fail (And How to Fix Them)
A company sets a goal to “onboard 100 customers by the end of Q2.” On paper, it’s a textbook example of a SMART goal: specific, measurable, and time-bound. But as the quarter progresses, cracks emerge. Teams scramble to hit the target at all costs, sacrificing quality, innovation, and sustainability. Customers are onboarded, but many have a poor experience, disengage quickly, or fail to adopt the platform effectively.
What went wrong? The problem isn’t the ambition, it’s the framing. Rigid, number-driven goals often backfire, creating tunnel vision, short-term thinking, and even unethical behavior. The solution is to pair goals with meaningful constraints: parameters that balance quantity with quality and short-term wins with long-term success.
Even in this world, more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way.