Page 81 - Hard Goals

72 HARD Goals

heck they mean. Sounds good, looks good, but it doesn’t mean
squat. Sears’ employees had a specifi c number, but they didn’t
have a specifi c understanding of what that number really meant.
Remember in the last chapter when I told you how GM exec-
utives wore buttons bearing the numeral “29” as a constant
reminder of the company’s lofty goal of 29 percent U.S. market
share? And then I noted that nobody’s going to develop a deep
emotional attachment to a number? Well, not only is this true,
but there’s another problem as well: it’s very diffi cult to develop
a memorable picture around an abstract number such as a mar-
ket share fi gure. And if you can’t develop a memorable picture,
you won’t really have a memorable goal—and a goal that you
can’t remember will never get accomplished.
Numerical success (such as doubling market share) is epiphe-
nomenal. What’s that mean? It means it’s “the result of” some-
thing else. Had GM hit its 29 percent market share, it would
have been “the result of” something else, like having cars that
people wanted to buy, made without any defects, by engaged and
productive employees, and sold through dealers that had killer
salespeople and high-touch customer service. And, not coinci-
dentally, I could create very concrete pictures for any of those
other factors much more easily than I could for the 29 percent
market share. Seriously, if I gave you a crayon and paper, which
is easier to draw—high-touch customer service, cutting-edge
car design and excited customers, or 29 percent market share?
Here’s my real test of specifi city: my kids could draw pictures
of everything except the 29 percent. If a six-year-old can draw
a picture of your goal, it’s specifi c. If not, it needs more work.
Now let’s be clear; I’m not saying you don’t need numbers.
On the contrary, great companies like Apple, Google, and Star-
bucks all use numbers. But they get millions of people aligned,