Impossible goals aren't the answer
Part 1 of 5 in a series exploring the discomfort of a widening learning gap and a culture of "impossible goal setting" that saddles teachers with the burden of execution and offers meager results.
Have you read Built to Last?
Better question- do you know what a BHAG is?
If you were in the workforce circa ‘95-’00 I’m guessing the idea of BHAG’s invaded the peace of whatever team you were on. You might still have the poster/coaster/lanyard hanging around to remind you. I do. In fact, I was the person who ordered those posters and tshirts for the team I helped to lead.
I’m a generalist who tackles new roles with enthusiastic zeal, so I’ve done quite a few different things well. No matter what seat I’m in, there's one job I've claimed at the table since that early experience with a failing BHAG, and that is realist.
I was 100% on board with the idea of one goal everyone understood and ran at full speed, slaying anything that got in the way. But I learned there’s another side to this thinking, and it’s still wreaking havoc on US K12 education.
This 5 part series is going to be an exploration that will be uncomfortable, but if you can stick with me to the end I think we’ll be in a good place to start important conversations.
Running the risk of attacks from the Blueberry Brigade, I’d like to make a business parallel to help us frame the conversation in a way that will let educators and business people who subscribe participate.
Have you ever set someone else’s sales quota?
When you work as an early stage sales consultant, it can go like this.
Founders: We’ve got to make a million in revenue this year.
Consultant: Okay. What did you do last year?
Founder: This year we have to make a million dollars. [here, we begin the BHAG math] We have 4 sales people. 1MM divided by 4 is 250K. Quota is 250K.
LETS GOOOOOOOO!
Consultant: It’s great to have a gigantic goal and it's awesome to be a leader who can inspire others to chase that goal. What did they bring in last year? Let’s do the gap math.
The air rushes out of the room. The name of Gary Vee is invoked.
Why be such a downer on such a worthy, exciting, and important goal?
When we talk about quotas, we’re talking about somebody's livelihood and income. Someone’s ability to pay the mortgage and care for themselves, and the pets or people who depend on them. A crazy goal like a million dollars in revenue between 4 sales people who only closed a fraction of this last year, with no new product or resources is not inspiring, it’s irresponsible.
You don't want to sit in the discomfort of knowing it's literally impossible to accomplish the goal with the current plan, so you pass it along with some cool SWAG.
Now, this is writing about education, so you may be wondering why I've just spent the last 200 words talking about sales quotas. Stay with me - what happens when a founder listens instead of pushing the discomfort down to sales in the form of an impossible BHAG?
They think for a moment, and then they'll say “I already knew.”
So if we have to have a million dollars in revenue by the end of the year, what does it mean if we don't? What are some of the ways we might mitigate that risk that aren't on the table right now?
What needs to change before we push that goal down to someone else?
Is there a way to accomplish the real goal - a thriving business that benefits investors, employees and the founders, that we haven’t considered because enthusiasm and emotion is easier?
Back to the classroom
Learning loss during the pandemic is going to have ripple effects far beyond the students who were K-3 during 19/20- 21/21 school years. Long after these students graduate from college, their earnings will be impacted by widening gaps in achievement by race and school poverty.
It’s no wonder the rallying cry is We’ve got to close this gap this year.
These are our kids, even if we don’t have a child of our own. Collectively, as a nation, we’ve decided we care about academic progress.
As leaders and commentators approach next year's test scores we can do the math and push the responsibility down to the classroom.
Or, we can pause and ask
“If we have to close this gap by the end of next year, what does it mean if we don't? What are some of the ways we might mitigate that risk that aren't on the table right now? What needs to change before we push that goal down to someone else?”
How will we support the leaders brave enough to come out and say “I don’t know to to fix this as quickly as we need to.”
How do we scale the leaders who’ve cracked the code?
Can we begin to fix education by refusing to accept feel good BHAGs with no realistic path to success and only a LETSGOOOOO! to fuel it?
Stay tuned. Next week we’ll talk about defining the gap and encouraging teams to think in radical ways that can exist within a rigid, sometimes toxic systems.
The following installment will cover applying proven, rather than feel good, change management planning against the gap.
Then, we’ll cover the vendors who knock at the door promising quick fixes once you’ve announced it’s going to be a long haul.
We’ll wrap up with a look at who is succeeding and why in the 5th and final post.
If you’re a practitioner still in the building and would like to add to the series, contact me on LinkedIn.
In the meantime, let’s talk about BHAGs and how they pass discomfort from leadership to the trenches, wrapped in cute swag and catchy phrases.
Dare I say…LETS GOOOO! ?