For several years we’ve told our clients that there are two types of goals: process goals and results goals. For example, a process goal may be "to write one grant per month." The correlating results goal might be "to acquire $100K in new funding this year."

So, for these goals, the question is: "Which goal will help us get the result we want -- the $100K?" The correct answer is "it depends.”

However, research highlighted by Chip and Dan Heath in their book, Switch, indicates that process goals (the research calls them behavioral goals) may have nearly three times the effectiveness of results goals in helping you get what you want! Here's what the Heaths say on page 62 of their book:

In a pioneering study of organizational change, described in the book The Critical Path to Corporate Renewal, researchers divided the change efforts they'd studied into three groups: the most successful (the top third), the average (the middle third), and the least successful (the bottom third). They found that, across the spectrum, almost everyone set goals: 89 percent of the top third and 86 percent of the bottom third. A typical goal might be to improve inventory turns by 50 percent. But the more successful change transformations were more likely to set behavioral goals: 89 percent of the top third versus only 33 percent of the bottom third. For instance, a behavioral goal might be that project teams would meet once a week and each team would include at least one representative of every functional area. Until you can ladder your way down from a change idea to a specific behavior, you’re not ready to lead a switch. For you visual learners, I've captured the main finding of their research in the graphic below:

What's the main tip for you?  Well, the next time you and your team are setting goals, be sure to consider incorporating process goals. You may end up getting better results!