Goal Obsession: Is Your Team Focused on the Right Goals?

By Mark Edmondson

In the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai, the lead character, Colonel Nicholson, is a prisoner of war in Burma who leads his men to build a bridge for his Japanese captors. Nicholson is an officer of high integrity, dedicated to excellence, a great leader of men -- and thus well trained to complete any goal that he is given. So he builds a beautiful bridge. By the film's end, he finds himself in the painful position of defending the bridge from attack by fellow officers who want to destroy it to prevent Japanese trains from using it. There's a chilling moment of realization, right before he detonates the bridge, when Nicholson (played by Alec Guinness) utters the famous line,

"What have I done?"

That is goal obsession. He was so focused on his goal -- building the bridge -- that he forgot the larger mission of winning the war. In its broadest form, it's the force at play when we get so wrapped up in achieving our goal that, like Colonel Nicholson, we do it at the expense of a larger mission. It's one of those paradoxical traits that are usually the sources of our success, but taken too far can become a blatant cause of failure. You see this when people become fixated on the wrong goals. Given their history of success, they end up achieving a result that does more damage than good to themselves, their team, their company, and even their family.

I recently visited with the VP of Manufacturing for a company with a machine-intensive process.

“How do you measure success?” I asked.

“Several ways, but most importantly by measuring our output and efficiency carefully,” the VP replied.

“How do you measure output and efficiency?” I asked.

“Before, we tracked direct labor productivity and utilization. But just recently we’ve decided to measure machine hours and utilization instead.”

“Why are you measuring machine hours and utilization?” I asked.

“That’s where we make our money,” he replied.

“How does you company make money with machine hours and utilization?” I asked.

“Well, our company implemented a new ERP system that allocates overhead to machine hours. So the more machine hours we achieve, the better my unit output and overhead rates become.”

“How is this working out for your team?” I asked.

“Great, since we’ve focused on it, machine utilization has improved steadily, which in turn has improved our output and overhead efficiency.”

“That’s great,” I said a bit bemused. “And how are the revenue and operational expenses for the company tracking?”

“Our CFO is studying that problem now...” he intimated, “because, even though our team is doing its part, we’re still struggling with fulfilling customer orders- and our inventory turns are getting worse.”

What's happening here?

Goal obsession has clouded the real mission of fulfilling customer demand. Manufacturing is so focused on the goals of machine hours and utilization, that they’re blind to the wastes of overproduction and inventory they’ve created. After all, when people committed to hitting their targets are given the wrong one -- when they focus on the bridge and not the war – waste, frustration, and lack of customer focus usually follow.

The solution is simple, but not easy. As the senior leadership of your company, you must step back, take a breath, and look around. Survey the conditions that are making you obsessed with the wrong goals. Time and deadline pressures come with being a leader. We confront them every minute of every day. They do not go away. This makes it all the more important to reflect upon your work, match it up against customer requirements and your company’s mission, and ask:

• "Is my team focused on the right goals?”
• “If collectively achieved, will these goals accomplish our company’s overall mission?”

After all their effort and display of professional prowess, you don't want to find your team at a dead end, asking,

"What have we done?"

Mark Edmondson is the President of LEAN Affiliates, a network of some of the best lean consultants in North America. He is passionate about leading clients through their lean enterprise transformation to achieve breakthrough results in a way that is self-funding with a commitment to results, He has a philosophy of inspiring innovation through simple, low cost, yet transformative changes to business processes. Contact Mark directly at mark@LEANaffiliates.com to share your experiences with goal setting and lean transformation.