 |
||
| Vol.3.125 | ||
Beware of Seagull Visitsby Vince PoscenteAuthor of The Ant and the Elephant, Invinceable Principles and The Age of Speed You know the profile. The Seagull visitor who blusters in, squawks - then leaves an unwelcome splattering of what he thinks. Seagulls are everywhere there is a chance to criticize.
Canada's hosting of the Olympic Winter Games had a mission spearheaded by Gold Medal Olympian, Roger Jackson. Own The Podium (OTP) was a Canadian initiative to lead the medal count. Yet 12 days into the Games The Washington Post flew in, squawked about Own the Podium and left this crappy rhetoric - Canada's Olympic Flop?
The Olympics weren't even over and Champions of instant gratification had predicted doom. They went on to pose the question: "How can leaders know the difference between a "stretch" goal that inspires people to reach new heights and an unattainable goal that winds up demoralizing people?" Let's address the issue of instant gratification first. By the 12th day, Canadian Olympians had attained 11 medals, a third of what was needed to own the podium. In the final five days, Canadian's garnered 15 medals. While Canada didn't achieve the OTP goal, it was third in the medal count, the nation's best-ever performance and most impressively - the 14 Gold medal haul was the most in Olympic Winter Game history. Second, let's talk about setting big goals. Organizations that set ambitious goals do so, in part, to inspire their own people. Coke set a goal in the mid '80s "To put a Coke within reach of every human being on the planet." They still have the "Coke within reach" signs at their facilities to this day. This INTERNAL assignment, goal, mission, BHAG, challenge is not supposed to be realistic. It is meant to set a target that inspires unified action. Regarding stretch goals, Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto had this to say, "the key is to realize the world is a sufficiently complicated place that it is really hard to predict a single goal. But just because the singular goal is not achieved does not mean setting the goal was not productive." To all those Seagulls out there, let's get something straight. We appreciate you have an opinion but the rest of us have enough challenges with our own expectations of instant gratification we don't need you to make it worse. Also, some of us like big goals. To us, goals are not an end result, they are a marker for a greater vision we have to for future Games, adventures and a fulfilling life. Dear Seagull, thank you for your noisy visit, now move along. Isn't there some statue, standing still, waiting to take your deposit. Meanwhile we'd like to stay productive while we drive towards few s t r e t c h goals of our own. We like it that way. Until next week, it's full speed ahead,
|
Email This Full Speed Ahead Article to a Friend 
|
|
© 2010 Vince Poscente. All Rights Reserved. |
