“The world is not a problem; the problem is your unawareness.” Bagwan Shree Rajneesh
"Your mind, while blessed with permanent memory, is cursed with lousy recall. Written goals provide clarity. By documenting your dreams, you must think about the process of achieving them." Gary Ryan Blair
Achieving Goals
There was a study done by Psychology professor Dr. Gail Matthews on Written Goals. She found that when people wrote their goals down, shared them and gave regular updates, people were (on average) 33 % more like to achieve them than those that merely formulated goals. It seems fairly obvious that they were more successful because they spent more time thinking about how to accomplish those goals but the act of sharing their progress was also important in that it affirmed their commitment. No one wants to “publicly” fail. It’s uncomfortable. We’ll take the time to fix a problem (reactive) but we rarely give ourselves permission to do it right the first time around (proactive). Stephen Covey’s (“7 Habits of Highly Effective People”) matrix of Urgent & Important is well known and yet I believe most people can’t bring themselves to move out of the urgent and of low importance quadrant and into the Important but not urgent quadrant. Why? It’s easier. When we lack clarity on how to best move forward we resort to being reactive.
Case in point: in “Switch” written by Chip & Dan Heath. They point out that a surprising thing they found out about change is that what often looks like resistance is simply a lack of clarity. Attaining clarity can be onerous and most people don’t know where to start much less be willing to give themselves permission to take the time.
Meaning
The question is: is formulating and achieving goals important? Yes. People are meaning-seeking and achieving goals is a way of fulfilling purpose.
“What also fuels their passion for work is a larger sense of purpose or passion. Given the opportunity, people gravitate to what gives them meaning, to what engages them to the fullest commitment, talent, energy, and skills.” – Daniel Goleman
Clarity
And where do most business owners lack clarity? Most would say marketing but I think, more importantly, many lack clarity about their business as a whole.
I understand that for most, Marketing is a seemingly impenetrable quagmire but Business Owners should keep in mind that it’s only part of the picture. Although, I will admit a big part; it’s not unusual that 1/3 to 1/2 of the price of a product or service is due to “marketing”.
Marketing Analytics are becoming more and more mainstream. Google Analytics are considered a must by many but Analytics for the small business should probably encompass a wider scope than just the internet. What’s most effective? Direct mail? E-mail? Telemarketing? You need to measure it to know. Measurement can be DIY; other methods could include hiring a school intern or one of the many marketing analytic companies.
Unfortunately, things change so effective marketing strategies are not the sort of thing you measure once and go “Yeah! I’ve found the magic formula”. You have to keep experimenting and testing to understand the impact. . For example, I was surprised when I learnt that Facebook Fan pages get a lot more hits than most company websites. Does that make it more effective? I suppose that depends on whether it results in more revenue.
Other interesting tidbits:
• I recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Tipping Point”, where he states that telemarketing’s effectiveness has decreased about 50% in the last 25 years. It should also be noted that’s why phone companies have been able to capitalize on offerings such as call display and call blocking.
• I keep coming across various forms of Multi-Level Marketing that are touted as the wave of future. Buyer beware: Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) is a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of others they recruit, creating a network of distributors and a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation. Other terms for MLM include network marketing, pyramid selling, and referral marketing. Critics have complained that MLM-based businesses have few representatives that make much profit which may be due to the recruitment of the general population who have little or no business training or experience. But it may also be because most people do it as a supplement to their “real” job and the necessary focus and commitment is lacking. (Reference Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing)
Does that mean we should stop going to things like Pampered Chef parties? It’s unlikely we will because as Dr. Robert Cialdini mentions in his book “Influence”: “the attraction, the warmth, the security, and the obligation of friendship are brought to bear on the sales setting. The strength of that social bond is twice as likely to determine product purchase as is preference for the product itself.” Which, I suppose, is why companies do it but it begs the question of just how far you should go to get a sale. I’d suggest if you’re all about techniques and not about value that your focus is in the wrong place. It’s been repetitively and consistently reported that companies that focus on profits do not make as much as those that are passionate about, and focus on providing, value. This also seems fairly obvious and yet so many business people can’t get beyond the siren call of profit.
To be fair, profit is crucial in the context of survival. I believe Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” applies almost as well to business (when viewed generically) as it does to the individual.
At the end of the day, however, it’s all meaningless without commitment. There’s no moving forward or impetus for action without it. In Dr. Gail Matthew’s study, she includes weekly updates as being important and again this seems fairly obvious. This kind of accountability both forces and renews focus so you’re more likely to resolve challenges given that we all want to appear credible when we tell someone we’re going to do something. And especially if we’re reinforcing it with updates, it makes a significant difference. And if what we’re trying to accomplish has personal meaning, which also fosters commitment, then success is just that more likely again.
Thankfully this is a large part of the Value Proposition of The Alternative Board. It provides a forum to discover clarity, with respect to meaning, and fosters the commitment and accountability that Business Owner’s need to move forward and succeed.
