What Are Your Values: Goals or Growth?

Written by Jason Haines

“One can choose to go back toward safety or toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” -Abraham Maslow

In Lean we always talk about having long-term thinking and trying to achieve something that is based in a future and not just the here and now. We get to that long-term thinking by having and creating many short-term goals that are built so we can continuously improve. Much like many fitness people who start out by having a long-term vision of where they want to be, and they take the time to use short term goals to reach that spot. In leadership and daily life, we want something like what Lean does as we become better daily and learn about serving our people through coaching, teaching, and mentorship. In all of this though we are learning, and we may not always reach our goals that we set out to achieve because there are things that may not have gone quite right, or we may have needed to change course because as we were trying to achieve our goals, we seen a better way of doing things. In leadership and in Lean we find that sometimes our goals change for this reason, but we grow when we make the changes that make us better or learn from the mistakes we made.

“The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray,” Scottish proverb, is correct. We do not always, or should I say most always never reach the goal that we are trying to get to because there are many things that happen that we did not expect to happen. Therefore, people should focus on growth rather than focusing reaching goals. I am not trying to tell people to not have goals and not try to achieve anything in their lives. What I am saying is enjoy the journey, and learn from it to get to those goals instead of being solely focused on reaching just the goals.

I listened to a debate recently between two Lean experts who were talking and one of them argued about the absurdity of one of W. Edwards Deming’s Fourteen Points about eliminating quotas and targets. One of the things that was said if we eliminate the goals, or as many of here call them KPIs, then what are we going to achieve, and I really agree with the person, what would we be trying to achieve. But at the same time, I was thinking and I look at it like this, I have worked at multiple organizations, and they all have daily goals, KPIs, and most of them achieve those goals, but there is usually one area that suffers due to the rest reaching their KPI. Why is this? I do not fully know the answer to this, but from experience and what I have seen, it has a lot to do with the values of the leaders and the organization.

When leaders put all the value on reaching the goal of the department daily, and they do this by their treatment of employees when they do not reach the goal, they let the frontline workers know this is the goal that is most important. I am not saying this is wrong, and I am not saying anyone is a bad person, when this happens, but the people at the frontlines will value what the leader values. If that is the daily KPIs then they will achieve that goal despite the cost to the rest of the organization. People want to do a great job as well as be rewarded for doing the great job and they will reach the goal regardless of how they get there. Though many of the KPIs were developed to achieve teamwork, most were made for perfect world experiences and not for the real world where people, machines, and other factors have to work together without anything going wrong. So as leaders we make our frontline employees’ goal oriented and not growth oriented by the KPIs that we give them to reach.

As leaders we want to come in and make the people and the organization better. None of us, just like the frontline employees, says to ourselves we want to do a bad job today. Why would we? Seems stupid and counterproductive if you ask me. I know I told my wife I wanted to help people grow and achieve bigger goals in their work. I have met many great people at the frontlines who could be part of leadership, work in maintenance, or in any other field that helps them grow and achieve their goals in life. I have made the mistake in the past that I focused on the daily goals and lost focus on the growth and long-term vision for the people. But why did I do that? My goal of helping people grow had not changed, but the values that I was showing my people had.

Another one of Deming’s Fourteen Points is eliminate FEAR. Why would he say eliminate fear? I found out quickly working as a production manager why he would say eliminate fear. When we get told that the values of the company are to achieve the daily goal or else, we start to fear for our job when we have no answers for achieving that goal. Which in turn, turns leaders who have a growth mindset into firefighters trying to save their asses from being fired because of those values of the organization. The leaders are just like the people at the frontlines, they have people that they are trying to support as well outside of work who depend on them as well. I was constantly being harassed about the numbers and that was all that mattered, and then it was quality, and at the end of the day we were all happy because we reached the goals that we were given, and no one was making us fear we wouldn’t have a job the next day. Sad thing was I wasn’t having any fun, I wasn’t happy, and there was no joy for anyone because of that. I had lost my values and was living someone else’s values because I feared losing my job daily. This created a horrible work environment and the day I was let go was the day I felt a huge relief.  

As John Maxwell says and defines leadership, “leadership is influence-nothing more, nothing less.” I had zero influence on the people who I was leading and had become a manager and boss of people. It was completely my fault because I had lost sight of my values of helping others and was more worried about saving my own skin and advancing myself. At the time I didn’t have the best character because I felt in past jobs I had been wronged and was trying to take it out on others by advancing myself and my career. I thought if I drove people, I would get what I wanted, and no one could get in my road. The more I did this the less influence I was having on my people because all I cared about was numbers and goals and cared nothing about growth. Mine or anyone else’s for that matter. I had lost sight of my reason for being in leadership and was going down a path that was destroying everything.

Recently I heard someone say I had changed, and I know I have. Hopefully for the better and I want to give leaders I admire and picking up Lean and leadership books to help with that all the credit. I also picked up a bible and started reading it as well and realized that the lessons from all these places are all the same. All of them talked about treating others with respect, having a future vision, and looking at the long-term of the goals we have along with the Bibles message of put your faith in God. Help each other out and be willing to sacrifice things for a better calling in our lives because the rewards will be greater than anything that we want right now. I have changed because I have the realization that I want to help others with their goals and sometimes that means sacrificing my goals so they can reach theirs. Growth over goals and looking to appreciate that growth along the way is what I am valuing today. I also want to help others grow with me and become better themselves so they can have a better future as well.

Helping build future leaders and ambassadors while also getting people home to their families. Allowing employees to enjoy their life and their jobs. This is what Lean is about. Respect for people (Stakeholders) in all areas and in all ways. If you do not know where to start give Industrial Solutions a call to start the conversation.

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