I find sometimes I set unrealistic goals for myself because I'm being overly ambitious. Now from our course, I see how important setting reasonable goals are.
Russell,
yes, a goal that is too hard or too easy are both unreasonable.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
In the class Career Development; the student's are asked to create a six month, nine months, and one-year goal for their class projects. It was unreasonable for a student without a current job to have a one-year goal of purchasing a house. Using the SMART formula he discovered how this goal was unrealistic as well as unachievable. This student did not have established credit or a checking account.
Sharon,
this is a great example of the practical uses of these tools.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Reasonable goals have a likelihood of being achieved given the anticipated effort and resources given to accomplish the goal. This becomes a less objective task when goals focus on outcome that are affected by many outside factor or unknown variables.
I feel that unreasonable goals set you up for failure and disappointment. It is better to set a short-term goal and accomplish it, reward yourself, then set more short term goals along with a long term goal.
Stephanie,
and really the short-term, goals can connect with long-term goals.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Reasonable goals include some specific elements that must be favorable enough to create the goal. Those items would include time, resources, a specific individual to lead and own the goal, and a projected outcome that produces favorable results for the individual or company. Unreasonable goals suffer in these areas, but sometimes a lack of favorable resources is confused with a complete absence of resources, making some unreasonable goals, more reasonable based upon the individuals creativity and flexibility.
James,
this is a good point about lack of favorable resources; sometimes this is a great opportunity to stretch our innovation.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
This is a great question. The obvious is that a reasonable goal must conform to the SMART standards. If it doesn't conform to those standards, then it ceases to be reasonable. I would however like to focus upon one aspect of those standards which is that of Achievability.
I find that what is a reasonable goal to one person, may be completely unreasonable to another depending upon their innate potentials and fit with the goal. If a goal conforms well to person to innate abilities, that goal is reasonable. However, if there is a poor match between the two, then that very same goal will be considered to be unreasonable.
In my experience, where a lot of organizations " fall down " is by failing to match the skill sets that the individuals have with their innate potentials. This mismatch crates a lot of physical, mental and emotional friction which dissipates the energy and resources of the individuals as so much "excess heat" and results in lost energy that could be used toward the achievement of the desired strategic goal.
Jonathan,
and this is a good argument for goal setting together rather than goals being set exclusively by the boss.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
A reasonable goal is one that is attainable through feasible means. You need to have reasonable goals or you may be setting yourself up for failure. I think that when one has unreasonable goals an individual is setting themselves up to not meet that goal. It is important that the goal be realistic and achievable.
I believe that this is very true. If you don't have the correct goals in place you can not achieve the highest outcomes.
When evaluating the "reasonability"of a goal one must consider more than if that goal can be achieved successfully or not. A goal is only reasonable if making the attempt of achieving such a goal is worth the resources required to do so.
Goals that are never fully achieved can have measures of success gained in the attempt and can be worth the reach. Although that reach may have fallen short of the original goal, lessons learned in the process and smaller successes made in the attempt, are worth the resources put forth and therefore deem the goal reasonable. I believe this is true even if in latter respect it is found that achieving goal was probably never possible.
However, goals in which the input, resources, required for the attempt will greatly outweigh any successes gained towards the outcome are unreasonable. Will the sacrifices outweigh the gains made in the attempt? If not, it is an unreasonable goal.
The fun thing about goals is that the good ones aren't entirely logical, SMART, usually require a lot of sacrifice, and most of all inspire a good amount of wholesome human spirit!!
A reasonable goal has to have two components- it of course has to be ATTAINABLE- but it also has to be challenging. A goal that is too easily obtained is not a true goal. The importance of associating a GOAL and not at target. A target being an increase in what you are already doing- but a GOAL as what is MOST acceptable for success and within acceptable reach. The idea of reaching a goal must have a personal satisfaction besides a business accomplishment to make the effort rewarding.
A reasonable goal is one that can be attained by the employee in a timely, realistic manner.
An unreasonable goal is one that might not or cannot be attained due to lack of training/knowledge, decent or manageable time frame, or without resources to get the job done.
My perception of a reasonable goal is one that stretches even above average performance expectations and one that will clearly have a positive outcome on the employee and organization. It should be attainable and solidify the employees "buy in" to the organizations vision and mission.
An unreasonable goal is one that has little to no chance of being attained (based on organizational trending, available resources, vagueness, etc.) and will have a negative impact on employee motivation and morale. Usually these types of goals were not well thought out.
Jim ,
and we have to realize that the unreasonable goals can be highly detrimental to morale.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
In cooking I look at my goals in the form of work production. I asses whether or not this is possible by setting a production schedule,a time line helps to gauge where production needs to be in order to accomplish tasks. I also look at the crew that I have to see if the job is realistic to accomplish.
I did not always do this but have seen through trial and error that measurable goals are necessary to the completion of sucessful work production.
Joseph,
and also what I see you doing here is evaluating your goals in light of your "resources" such as time, people, ingredients, etc. This is a key part in evaluating whether our goals are reasonable or not.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
