Discovery Questions: Goals and Goal Conflicts

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Daniel Hummerdal is a world-leading health and safety innovator with deep experience in finding new and more functional ways to improve safety. A founder of Safety Differently, Daniel begun his career in aviation, before training to become an organisational psychologist. He has since worked as a consultant in high risk industries in France and Australia. His goal is to facilitate the development of better solutions in which people’s potential is engaged and realised.

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Discovery questions: goals and goal conflicts

Goals are desired end states that people and organisation seek to achieve. There are, of course, many different goals that are relevant at different stages of work: safety, productivity, quality, cost savings, client satisfaction, comfort, security, environmental protection, etc. Other goals may be more personal or subjective, such as bonus payouts, getting home on time, making the boss happy, or be accepted by a group. And things that people work hard to avoid is a type of inverse goal that inform behaviours as well.

A goal conflict is when two or more goals are incompatible or connected in such a way that both or all goals cannot be achieved simultaneously. Classic goal conflicts in the workplace may be between achieving things quickly (on time), and achieving things in a more holistic manner (consider multiple options, plan in greater detail, set things up in a more robust way, inform everyone that needs to be informed, etc). A more subtle form of goal conflict can be those which people deem unrealistic or unattainable. That is not to say that people do not try.

The point is that work as it happens is filled with goal conflicts that people have to negotiate and balance, often without guidance as to how to optimally trade one performance dimension against another.

Understanding goals and goal conflicts enable exploration of what drives performance, but also to explore the limits of operational control (safety). What is too much? What is too steep? What is too late? What goals/goal conflicts are most challenging to deal with?

The questions below may assist in mapping goals and goal conflicts, to pinpoint dilemmas and challenges that are unreasonable, or issues that could otherwise be approached in a different way.

• Can you tell me about a time when you were trying to get a job done, but things kept getting in the way?
• Many different goals can be important at the same time. What have you experienced that illustrate this?
• When have you seen someone do something impressive, and you thought ‘I should do that too’?
• Have you ever been in a position in which leaders and managers are pushing for schedule, and you are pushing for a quality job? What happened? How was this resolved?
• Good enough or perfect? Have you ever had to make this choice in your work? What happened?
• When have you felt that the quality of your work was compromised or undermined by how things are organised? What happened?
• How much of your day is spent on fixings problems and issues versus spent on getting the job done? What are the problems and issues that you have to address?
• When have you seen performance compromised? What examples can you share?
• Have you ever felt embarrassed about a job and wish you could turn back time and redo it
• Think back to a time where you thought: ‘I’ll never do that again’ What had happened then?
• What changes here when the pressure is on? What stops and starts being important?
• What do people get told off for doing around here?
• What are the things that worry you that might happen here?
• What mistakes is a new employee likely to make around here?
• What mistakes is a senior employee likely to make around here?
• What jobs do you really prefer doing? What’s good about them?
• Tell me about a time when you felt alive and energised by your work here? What happened?

Article orginally published on Owhiro.

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Owhiro explores the relationship between the potential of humans, and their work. It looks at what is currently going on in workplaces, ventures into what could be going on, and discusses methods for evolving work practices so that more of people’s potential is realised at work.