How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Setting Goals

Disciplines > Change Management > Creating Change > Setting Goals

Method | Example | Discussion | See also

Method

Set the person a goal or formal objective that requires them to change.

Goal-setting may be used incrementally, where you set the person a goal to do something that forces them to let go of some small thing. Then you set a further goal and then one further again. In this way, you are getting the person to walk by focusing on one step at a time.

Example

A person is given a formal objective to redesign their working practices to come into line with new company regulations.

A marketing manager is given the objective to introduce a new direct-sales method.

Discussion

The principle here is to use the organizational goal-setting process to motivate people to change. If I give you an objective to do something that you have never done before, then you will need let go of something you have now in order to do that new thing.

When a person does something, they have to justify it to themselves. When they do something that is outside of their beliefs then they have to either discount it or maintain consistency by changing their beliefs. Thus just getting somebody to act may be enough to change them.