Many organisations use stretch goals, those “seemingly impossible” goals to motivate employees to reach beyond what they thought was possible. However, a recent study by Lemone, Blum and Roman published in February 2016 casts some doubt over the effectiveness of stretch goals. You can find the full article here.
Lemone et al studied the effectiveness of stretch goals in the running of organisations that deal with substance use disorders. Coming out of their research was the finding that in organisations with poor capacity, stretch goals made no impact, and in organisations that were strong stretch goals were found to be harmful and demotivating.
Overall they concluded that stretch goals are harmful for most organisations and that a better approach is to negotiate challenging but seemingly not impossible goals with the staff, which allowed for smaller but more frequent wins to be achieved. Essentially it means staff can have an increased expectation of achievement, which is much more motivating and means it is more likely to occur than stretch goals.
Is it time you re-evaluated the goals of your organisation to see whether they are motivating or de-motivating your employees? The Avondale Business School can advise your organisation on being effective in these areas – find out how by contacting Warrick Long at the Avondale Business School.
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