BHAGs and Aiming High

Related to the previous post, today's Google "quote of the day"

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it. - Arnold Toynbee

Reference the BHAG. A Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. BHAGs are very similar to the "vision statements" from my last post.

BHAGs get a bad rap because nobody knows what to do with them. When you're in an engineering organization, the engineers don't know how to build one, so they scratch their heads. When you're in a research organization, they can't figure out how to break a BHAG down into a series of step-wise journal papers. When you're inside of a financial organization, they can't figure out how to put it into a value on a spreadsheet.

The thing about BHAGs though is that they are the source of the messianic zeal that you find in the most effective leaders. The BHAG is the nutjob idea that motivates inspired leadership. It's that thing that looks wildly unplausible...right up until the point when it actually happens.

It's very rare that anyone or any organization has the wherewithal, the staying power, and the (yes, strategy) to actually reach a BHAG. When there is such an organization, all bets are off. Men start walking on the moon, technology jumps ahead in years rather than decades, and life changes.