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Designing a ship
During World War II, 7-year-old Raye Montague became fascinated with ships when she and her grandfather visited a captured German military submarine. From that moment on, she dreamed of working in shipbuilding. Montague excelled in math and science at school but was not allowed to study Engineering because of her skin colour. And thus, she studied Business Administration instead.
After graduating, she moved to Washington, DC, where the Navy hired her as a clerk, and she had to compare data files all day. Although that was well beyond her talents, it had one advantage: she was near one of the Navy’s earliest computers, which sparked her interest greatly.
The computer was only accessible to mathematicians and engineers, so her manager declined her request to teach her how to use it. However, a few weeks later, no one was around when the computer had to be operated. After observing the others using the computer for hours, she knew what to do, and thus, Montague took the plunge. She nailed the job and got more responsibility.
In the early 1970s, her boss asked her to create a computer program to design naval vessels in six months. He did not mention that his department had been trying to do this for years unsuccessfully. Montague succeeded, and not long after, she was assigned to design a completely new naval vessel. Normally, this took about two years, but her boss gave her only a month. Montague fixed it in 18 hours and 56 minutes.
Mission impossible
Montague was faced with ‘stretch targets’. These are goals so ambitious that they are almost impossible to achieve. The idea is that this forces people to think outside the box and come up with fresh ideas. Although the motivation for imposing a stretch target on Montague may have been different, she revolutionised the world of ship design.
Another world-famous example of a stretch target comes from John F. Kennedy, who, in his 1962 speech, set the ambitious goal of landing people on the moon by the end of the decade. Elon Musk is now trying to do the same with his mission to Mars.
Paralysed or inspired
Stretch targets can be highly effective and motivating if applied correctly. And there lies the problem for many organisations. They see other companies achieve great results and copy-paste the concept without considering creating the right context.
Because what can be highly stimulating for one employee may paralyse another. People who are trusted and given space, who may be creative and can take more risks, thrive on almost impossible goals, while people who do not feel supported or are overloaded with work shut down. Or worse, they start behaving unethically to achieve those targets. The Enron scandal and ‘Dieselgate’ at Volkswagen are good examples.
Immobilised by the performance review circus
Also, working on big dreams means that sometimes you won’t succeed, or just partially. In that case, you should not punish employees for not achieving their goals. In fact, they usually still achieve far more than if they had worked with an incremental goal.
But most performance review systems don’t take this into account. These rigid systems require you to work with pre-set targets monitored by the HR department. Managers can’t or dare not deviate from procedure because they are afraid of the consequences. Furthermore, they don’t want to disappoint (or piss off) their team members at the end of the year, so they agree on achievable goals with just a bit of ambition, allowing them to give their team members a good or above-average score.
Mediocrity is a choice
These systems encourage mediocrity. They don’t stimulate employees to go the extra mile, and complacency takes over. Talented people leave, and you end up in a downward spiral.
Especially when change is happening at an ever-increasing pace, it is crucial to challenge employees to think up new solutions and innovations. Stretch targets can be a fantastic tool, but are counterproductive if the essence is not understood.
Organisations could benefit enormously from reconsidering their rigid control mechanisms. But that requires courage and daring to let go, which may feel unnatural because people tend to fall back on more control, especially in uncertain times. However, it is probably the only solution to break that tailspin.
This article was originally published in Dutch on MT/Sprout, the most popular business and management platform in the Netherlands.
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