The BHAG Revisited
When Jim Collins’ book Good to Great was published back in 2001 the term “BHAG” was on the lips of every leadership consultant or CEO. Going for that Big Hairy Audacious Goal was what you needed to be doing if you wanted to drive success through clear vision and direction. Fast forward to 2024, and we are now suggesting something a bit different. No one is saying that you shouldn’t have a big stretch goal, but we’ve learned a few things about getting to the top of a large mountain on a different planet. Specifically, both research and experience tell us to start small.
Talya Minsberg is a writer focused on fitness and health. She also takes a “how to” approach to her work---and her own fitness. In a recent article for the New York Times, written just before she would run the New York City Marathon for the 10th time, she chronicled some “lessons learned” from her earlier long-distance runs. The 2023 Boston Marathon, in particular, provided her valuable insight.
Minsberg reported that she’d entered that race feeling confident: she felt fit enough to envision she might well produce a personal best time in the just over 26-miles long run. According to her article, however, things did not go as she’d expected: very early in the race (at the three miles mark) she “realized I was hurting way too early.”
I see this situation in organizations often. Ambitious, hardworking, and seemingly well-prepared folks confidently undertake a BHAG-type goal only to hit bumps. These obstacles were unexpected; they weren’t on their radar. Their pre-undertaking audit included the seemingly right due diligence regarding the task they were considering, and they undertook it feeling well-equipped. When a significant problem arose during the process of executing their planned effort, however, many of them lost their footing. Some momentarily lost their stride, but got back on track, while some, unfortunately never did.
As much of a surprise as a particular obstacle or set of obstacles may be, what we all know is that stuff happens. We can monitor the status quo, look at trend lines and bring in assessments by top experts, but there are things that we know about and still make the wrong call---wrongly estimating the likelihood of an international conflict evolving into an outright war and causing a fuel oil crisis, for example. Sometimes bumps stem from things we likely couldn’t have anticipated: case in point, a global pandemic takes out a big chunk of the workforces around the world needed for successful pursuit of our goal. Whether interruptions in our progress derive from things we might have seen coming but didn’t, or from things that no one could have anticipated, come they do. Once in a very rare while, all goes smoothly from inception to the finish line, but that is by far the exception, not the rule.
Learning from Talya Minsberg’s experience gives us a window into what to do about the obstacles that appear between the time we start running and the time we hope to break through the ribbon at the finish line. In fact the name of her article said it all: To Meet Big Goals, Think Small. Viewing the journey ahead as smaller sprints, not a 26+ mile race, allows us to breathe both physically and mentally.
In Minsberg’s case, she turned to a series of approaches once she hit her first setback. First, she reset an expectation, convincing herself “that I never had to race a marathon again if I just got to Mile 10 on pace to hit my goal.” Her second smart chunk-it-up strategy was deployed at the 10-mile mark by promising herself that if she got to 13.1 miles (the halfway mark) she’d renegotiate with herself at that point.
Apparently she did so successfully. In spite of a reported side stitch requiring deep breathing and stretching, she got a second wind by Mile 22 and decided to “reclaim whatever time I could.” Her last report on the race tells the rest of her story: She “ended up running those last four miles way faster than my pace at the start of the race.”
In an organizational setting, I call each of her short-term, specific activities a process goal. Ticking off process goals is a way of reaching the big goal that makes it manageable to do so. Process goals give large goal pursuers a sense of control at the very time they need it the most---when they’ve encountered a bump. They create short term successes that provide motivation for the next sprint (and deserve a small, but genuine celebration---even just with yourself.) Outside of supporting the achievement of the large goal you are pursuing, perhaps the greatest benefit of repeatedly setting process goals is that you develop an important success skill: the ability to change those goals rapidly when the next bump hits without losing sight of your ultimate goal.
Believe me, you will need this skill because both audacious stretch goals and their inherent bumpy patches are in everyone's future. But you don’t have to be overwhelmed by either. Just bring your giant stretch goal into reach by giving it a partner: Big Hairy Audacious Goal, meet Beneficial Humane Approachable Goal. I consider them a team and think of the duo as BHAG 2.0. Deployed together, they can take you all the way to the finish line.