Cannibalised Goals

Whenever I’m asked to review a corporate strategy, one of the first things I look out for is cannibalised goals.

Cannibalised goals are goals that conflict with each other or erode one another.

In strategy, it’s important to be able to recognise when two or more goals are actively working against each other.

For instance, the IT department may plan to drive automation, while the finance department plans to cut costs, and the human resources department is planning to recruit more people.

As you can see, this happens very easily when there is a silo approach to goal setting. All these goals are good and noble, but in reality, the attainment of one may come at the expense of another.

In my experience, this is often the cause of internal power battles for resources and priority.

In everyday life, we have similar conflicting goal triangles: We may want to travel extensively, yet we also want to save and invest our money for the future, and at the same time we want to generously help those who are close to us.

The good news is that cannibalised goals can be achieved, perhaps just not all at once or not all in the manner we wish to experience them.

This is one of the reasons why a centralised, impartial, coordinative strategy function is necessary.

Provided all the goals are aligned to a certain unified purpose, the working and timing of those goals must be done in a way that does not cannibalise the other goals or the bigger purpose.

Take some time and assess your five biggest goals and see if they complement or contradict each other.

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.