Making Goals Meaningful

0:09 another significant limitation 0:11 of a smart goal framework is it doesn't 0:14 help you make goals meaningful 0:16 it doesn't help you imbue goals with 0:18 meaning 0:19 in fact very often it leads you to do 0:22 exactly the opposite it leads you 0:24 to set very crisply defined specific 0:26 goals 0:27 that no one cares about and that people 0:29 are not motivated to pursue 0:32 i really like this quote from john 0:34 maynard keynes who is a famous economist 0:36 who said 0:36 if human nature felt no satisfaction 0:39 profited part 0:40 in constructing a factory a railway a 0:43 mine or a farm 0:44 there might not be much investment as a 0:46 result of cold calculation 0:49 a study by duffy and colleagues revealed 0:51 that those employees 0:53 who reported that they found a 0:55 meaningful job a meaningful career 0:58 also reported greater levels of 1:00 satisfaction in their job 1:02 greater levels of life meaning and in 1:04 the end much 1:05 greater levels of overall satisfaction 1:07 in life 1:08 i wanted to give you an example of a 1:10 study that illustrates the importance of 1:12 meaning when it comes to our tasks 1:14 goals and jobs the study was done by dan 1:17 ariely and colleagues 1:20 what they did is they asked people to 1:22 assemble lego robots 1:24 and they put them in two different 1:25 conditions in the first condition 1:28 the experiment to disassemble the robot 1:32 as the participant was moving to the 1:33 next robot 1:35 so imagine a situation you've just 1:37 completed your first robot figure 1:39 you submitted it for evaluation you got 1:41 paid 1:44 you're moving on to the next robot and 1:46 then you're seeing the first robot 1:48 being diligently disassembled by the 1:51 lead investigator in the second 1:54 condition 1:55 the lego robots stayed assembled until 1:58 the experiment was over 2:00 so as you progress with the experiment 2:01 you can see these lego figures being 2:04 lined up next to one another 2:06 what would you expect as the pattern of 2:08 results in this experiment 2:11 participants in what condition would you 2:13 expect to build more robots 2:16 now if you chose the second condition 2:18 you're spot on 2:20 participants in the second condition on 2:22 average build 32 percent more robots 2:24 than in the first condition what was 2:27 also interesting about this experiment 2:29 is there was a progressively declining 2:31 pay scale 2:32 so you would get paid for every robot 2:35 but with 2:36 every next robot you would get paid a 2:38 little bit less 2:39 and so in the second condition 2:41 participants were 2:43 more than three times as likely to 2:45 continue building robots 2:46 when they pay dropped to below one 2:49 dollar per piece 2:51 now why is this the case if you think 2:54 about this what ariel 2:55 and colleagues did is pretty ruthless 2:58 because in the first condition 2:59 they drained this task they drained 3:01 these goals of all possible meaning and 3:04 it's not a particularly meaningful task 3:05 to begin with 3:07 but seeing the product of your work 3:09 being instantly disassembled 3:12 right in front of your eyes is 3:14 incredibly demotivating 3:16 in the second condition when you see the 3:19 product of your work 3:20 that contributes to high levels of 3:21 engagement and motivation 3:25 now one thing that you can do with your 3:26 teammates to make sure that you 3:28 imbue goals and tasks with meaning 3:32 is to allow them to see how the product 3:35 that they're producing 3:37 or the service influences the lives of 3:40 other people 3:42 adam grant did a lot of interesting 3:44 research on the subject for example he 3:46 approached 3:47 university fundraising callers these are 3:50 the people who solicit funds for 3:51 scholarships 3:53 and he found out that they don't 3:54 particularly view their jobs and tasks 3:56 as being particularly meaningful 3:59 pardon the language but one of the 4:00 fundraising offices described his job as 4:03 wetting your pants in a dark suit he 4:05 said you get a pleasant feeling but 4:06 nobody else notices or cares 4:09 so what adam grant did is he 4:12 gave this fundraising officers an 4:14 opportunity to interact with those 4:15 students 4:16 who were the recipients of scholarships 4:19 so imagine a student walks into your 4:20 office and says look 4:22 the only reason i can afford to go to 4:23 college is because of the scholarship 4:25 money that you raised 4:27 what adam grant found is that for those 4:29 officers 4:31 fundraising callers that were able to 4:33 interact with students 4:34 scholarship recipients they increased 4:36 their time on the phone by 142 percent 4:39 and raised 171 more money 4:43 recall our radiologists that missed a 4:46 gorilla image 4:48 on a long scan it turns out 4:52 that some of them 4:55 don't find the tasks particularly 4:57 meaningful and engaging they sit in the 4:59 basement 5:00 of a hospital in this dark room 5:02 continuously reading x-rays they never 5:03 get a chance to see their patients 5:06 one simple intervention that turner and 5:08 colleagues have introduced for their 5:10 jobs 5:11 is that in addition to the x-ray image 5:13 they would also receive a picture of a 5:15 patient for whom they would be reading 5:16 that x-ray 5:17 and what the scholars found is that the 5:19 length of the report increased by about 5:21 29 percent 5:23 and the accuracy of the report went up 5:24 by about 46 5:26 in those conditions when the 5:28 radiologists saw the picture of the 5:29 patient 5:31 one aspect of our discussion would like 5:32 to for us to focus on 5:34 is to recognize that it's not sufficient 5:37 to just 5:38 set crispy defined specific measurable 5:41 goals the checklist is not sufficient 5:43 it's also helpful to be aware of the 5:45 limitations that come with setting smart 5:47 goals 5:48 but more importantly it is essential 5:50 that we imbue our goals with meaning 5:53 and one of the most effective strategies 5:56 to help people 5:57 imbue their goals and task with meaning 6:00 is to allow them to see 6:01 how their product impacts the lives of 6:03 others 6:05 so for example medical devices firms 6:08 engineers 6:08 who work on medical devices that often 6:11 save patient lives 6:13 such as pacemakers they rarely get a 6:15 chance to see their patients 6:17 and what these companies are beginning 6:18 to do is that holiday parties at 6:20 corporate parties 6:21 they're giving a chance for the 6:23 engineers to meet the patients that are 6:24 using the medical devices 6:27 it's an incredibly emotional moment and 6:29 leads to tremendously higher levels of 6:30 engagement and satisfaction 6:33 adam grant also reports that at rich 6:35 scotland for example 6:36 every day starts with employees sharing 6:40 these 6:40 wow moments of wow stories of how what 6:43 they did yesterday 6:44 fundamentally shaped customer experience 6:46 so those are some of the motivational 6:48 tools and tactics 6:49 you can use to make sure that you imbue 6:51 tasks and goals 6:53 with greater meaning