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A goal can be perfectly reasonable when it is created. Then somebody approves it. Somebody else increases it. Another team adds a dependency. The budget changes. The people expected to deliver it discover that the assumptions no longer match reality. And suddenly a good goal is no longer a good goal. This is what I call The Goal Trilemma. It is one of the concepts I developed while working with Enterprise Performance Management and later expanded in Performantria. The idea is simple: A goal does not exist in isolation. Its success depends on three parties being aligned. The Goal Setter The Approver The Team Working Towards the Goal When those three perspectives are aligned, a goal has a reasonable foundation for success. When they are not, even an excellent goal can fail. What is the Goal Trilemma? The Goal Trilemma is a framework for understanding the relationship between the person or function setting a goal, the person approving it, and the team responsible for delivering it. These roles often see the same target from very different perspectives. The Goal Setter may have performed the detailed analysis. The Approver may be looking across a much broader organisational portfolio. The Team may understand operational constraints that neither of the other two can see. None of those perspectives is necessarily wrong. The problem appears when one perspective changes the goal without properly understanding the others. That creates misalignment. And misalignment creates bad performance management. Think of the Project Management Iron Triangle The idea is partly inspired by one of the most familiar concepts in project management. The Iron Triangle. A project needs to balance: Time. Cost. Scope. Change one and something else usually moves. If you shorten the schedule while keeping the scope fixed, you may need more resources. Reduce the budget while keeping the deadline and scope unchanged, and you have created a different problem. The constraints interact. Goals work in a similar way. But instead of balancing time, cost and scope, the Goal Trilemma balances the people involved in creating, approving and delivering the target. The dependencies are less visible. That is why they are so easy to ignore. The Goal Setter The Goal Setter is usually the person or team that develops the target. Ideally, they understand: What needs to be achieved. Why it matters. What the historical performance looks like. Which resources are available. What assumptions have been made. What dependencies exist. What level of improvement appears realistic. A properly developed target therefore represents more than a number. It is the result of analysis. If that analysis suggests that 2.5% improvement is realistic, 2.5% should not automatically be interpreted as a lack of ambition. It may simply be the best estimate supported by the information available. That distinction matters. A target should be challenging. But there is…
