Bringing Out the Best in People: How to Apply the Astonishing Power of Positive Reinforcement, Third Edition, 3rd Edition

14

Goal Setting to Shape Behavior

Make haste slowly.

—BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Few things consume more management time than goal setting. Establishing “realistic, attainable, yet challenging goals” has been a battle cry for legions of managers—and management consultants. In fact, training courses in goal setting and the accompanying “conducting an effective performance appraisal meeting” are second only to sales management skills as the most popular nontechnical training courses offered by most companies.

You’d think that as often as goals are discussed, developed, and used by managers, there would be agreement on how to set goals and document their value to business. Yet there is not. SMART goals are very popular today, I think, because the acronym ...