Goals vs Measures

The economist Charles Goodhart once coined a phrase which in turn became one of those pithy business laws we occasionally hear about. (For the record, I don’t know who formalizes pithy phrases into law but I would please like to have a vote in who decides. Moving on…)

Goodhart’s Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

We live this every day as marketers. We say our goal is to grow by N% or hit X total. But these aren’t goals. These are measures of our goals. They aren’t targets, but we make them targets. Cue gaming of systems and short sighted juicing of numbers.

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

The real goals, the real “targets,” aren’t numbers. They’re written in plain language. They also don’t merely reference the future. They should incorporate some dissatisfaction we have with today.

Our goals are to find and share our voice, make a difference, and shift the culture. Most other statements are derived from that: show others how funny or helpful or relevant we are (“grow our followers X%); become the informational resource they trust most (“generate Y subscribers this year”); build a product others adore, or a process that works, or a service that improves lives—all while we work to improve the thing constantly (“sell $Z”).

The working world is littered with measures masquerading as goals. It’s worth asking: What’s our actual goal?

— — —

If you haven’t yet, subscribe to get a few short ideas like this via email each week. You’ll also get exclusive announcements, access, and experimental projects once every few months. Or you can support what I do by purchasing a book.