Have you ever felt so strongly about something you wanted to accomplish that you set a firm goal and shared it with someone? If you’re like most people, you have. Your pride swelled as you identified with your desired end result and as sharing your goal made it seem more real.

Perhaps you shouldn’t have done that. Recent research in psychology has shown that telling someone your goals makes them less likely to happen, and several notable researchers have argued against setting goals at all.

According to Derek Sivers (known for changing the way music is bought and sold) in his Keep Your Goals to Yourself TED Talk, research has shown that the mind produces a “social reality” that tricks you into feeling like your work is already done once you’ve shared a goal.

Adam Galinsky, co-author of a Harvard Business School report called Goals Gone Wild (not to be confused with similarly titled spring break videos), argues that “goal setting has been treated like an over-the-counter medication when it should really be treated with more care, as a prescription-strength medication.” Galinsky suggests that goal setting
can focus attention on the wrong things and can lead people to participate in extreme behaviors to achieve the goals.

Co-authors of the same report, Maurice Schweitzer of the University of Pennsylvania and Lisa Ordonez of the University of Arizona, have studied goal attainment and have shown that when people self-report their achievement, if they are not entirely successful, many lie to make up the difference.

All of these observations may be true. But to do as these studies seem to suggest—to neither set nor share goals—flies in the face of conventional corporate wisdom that seems to be working quite well. Corporations require employees at every level to set expections and goals, and require accountability to management, boards and shareholders for their successful execution. Imagine your response to a CEO who convened a town hall meeting to explain how this social reality research has made him rethink organizational accountability from top to bottom.

Would you be inspired to go back to your desk with your CEO’s mandate
to think vaguely about your quarterly goals and keep them a secret?  

Stephen Covey, author of the revered 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, has written (of goals) that “accountability breeds responsibility.” Accountability has also been a hallmark of Dale Carnegie’s training workshops. So are the thoughts of Carnegie and Covey—two of the heads on the Mount Rushmore of business wisdom—now outmoded by this new research?

One might argue in their favor that accountability works in a corporate environment where sharing a goal initiates a process of engagement with all of the players involved in its eventual execution. In this environment, no project can be initiated without sharing.

But are personal goals really that different from organizational goals? How many of your personal goals can be realized entirely on your own, with no help from advisors, mentors and superiors? You could solicit input without ever revealing your end goals, but you will be asked about your purpose, and being evasive isn’t likely to advance your goals. Assuming that you could get all of the advice you need without revealing your goals, how easy would it be to stay on task with your entire support system unaware of your mission?

What seems likely about the “social reality” idea is that it is true. At the moment you share your goals, you experience a psychological setback that you must overcome. If you feel sated when you are congratulated, you’ll push beyond it toward your goals. It’s partly analogous to weightlifting, which temporarily damages your muscles before building them.

We would love to hear your ideas as you weigh conventional thinking on this subject against these new counter-intuitive ideas. Please share your thoughts with us and our DFW community on Facebook.