When Should I Adjust My Team's Goals?

Google has an interesting approach to goals.

With their OKR system, they assume hitting two-thirds of their goals is a win. They purposely set stretch goals knowing they likely won't hit them all.

Other companies take the opposite approach – they set goals with 95% probability of achievement because they want the consistency of doing what they say they'll do.

There's no right answer. But here's what matters: being clear with your team about what probability you're playing with and what you’re actually trying to do with the goal in the first place.

Because if one person thinks a goal is 95% achievable and another thinks it's 50%, you're going to have very different responses when you don't hit it.

I was talking with a founder recently about exactly this.

"We set this goal, and it's very unlikely we're actually going to hit it," he said. "Should we adjust it?"

I paused. Because there's no universal answer to that question. The answer depends entirely on what the goal is doing for you and your team.

The real question isn't whether you're going to hit the goal. It's whether the goal is still serving its purpose.

What Goals Are Actually For

Here's what most people get backwards: they think goals are the ends unto themselves.

But goals are actually a means. The real ends? Enjoying the pursuit. Maximizing creativity. Generating focus and alignment.

When you shift to seeing goals as a tool that serves you, rather than a scorecard that judges you, the question of "when to adjust" becomes clearer. You stop asking "are we going to hit this number?" and start asking "is this goal still serving us?"

This matters because the same goal can be serving one team beautifully while slowly suffocating another. It's not about the number. It's about the relationship you have with that number.

So how do goals actually serve you?

The Rubber Band Analogy

Imagine a rubber band stretched between where you are now and where you want to be.

If the rubber band has too much slack (i.e., goals seem too easy), there's no tension – you coast, you don't push yourself, nothing interesting happens.

If it's stretched too tight, the rubber band snaps. And once it snaps, there's no tension either – just resignation, going through the motions, everyone quietly waiting for the quarter to end.

The sweet spot is that middle zone where the stretch feels significant but possible. Where it generates creativity instead of despair. Where the gap makes you ask "how might we?" instead of "why bother?"

Think of it like a basketball game where you're down 20 points going into the fourth quarter. Do you tell your team to stop trying? Do you adjust the goal to "let's just lose by 15 instead of 20"? Or do you use that gap as the thing that galvanizes you – that creates the intensity and creativity you need to make something happen?

That's what I call healthy creative tension. And whether your goal is creating it or killing it – that's the real question to ask before you decide to adjust anything.

Most people never stop to ask.

The Three Questions To Ask Before Adjusting

So if you’re questioning what to do with your company’s goals, run it through this filter:

1. Has the rubber band actually broken?

If your team literally can't imagine how it's possible to get close, the goal may not be serving you anymore.

Notice I said "can't imagine how it's possible" – not "it's unlikely." There's a difference between a big stretch and total impossibility.

If there are still levers you haven't pulled and strategies you haven't tried, that might be exactly the kind of tension that sparks creativity. But if the stretch feels so impossible that everyone's already given up? That's when the rubber band has snapped.

2. Is there any excitement left?

Here's a useful test: when you think about the goal, does any part of you get curious about "how might we?" Or is it just dread and resignation?

If bringing wonder and creativity to the goal generates ideas (even wild ones), it may be helpful to keep it. The goal is working. But if everyone's just counting down to the retrospective where you explain why you missed it, that's a signal the goal stopped serving its purpose.

3. What happens if you don't hit it?

This is where most teams go sideways. They set goals from above the line – with inspiration and creativity – but then relate to missing them from below the line, with blame and shame.

If not hitting your goal means someone's getting fired or the team feels like failures, you've got a bigger problem than the goal itself. You're using goals as a weapon instead of a tool.

The alternative? Separate the accounting from the response (like I wrote about in last week's newsletter).

The accounting is simple: we said X, we got Y.

The response is where the learning happens. Do a retrospective. Ask: were these achievable with our current talent and strategy? Did we discover we need different tactics? What did we learn about setting goals?

That's above-the-line accountability. No blame, just learning.

So When Should You Adjust?

So back to that founder who asked about adjusting his goals - what did I tell him?

I didn't tell him anything. I asked him a question.

"What do you want to do? What do you think would best serve you and your team?"

He thought about it. Then: "I want to keep them. See how creative we can get to either hit them or get close."

And that's when it clicked for him. The goal was still generating that spark – that "holy shit, what if we could?" energy. The rubber band hadn't snapped. It was stretched, but not broken.

So when should you adjust your goals?

When the rubber band has actually snapped. When there's no creative tension left – just resignation.

But if there's even a spark of wonder and curiosity about how you might get there? It’s likely it’s worth keeping. That's the goal doing what it's supposed to do.

Then do the accounting. See what you learn. Maybe those goals were too aggressive and you need to recalibrate for integrity. Maybe you need new strategies or tactics. Maybe you'll get to 80% of the goal, and that's actually more than you would have gotten if you'd set it lower.

The point isn't the number. It's what the pursuit generated (focus, creativity, learning, and growth).

That's what goals are for.

With love,

- Dave Kashen

P.S. One more thing: make sure you're measuring what actually matters. If your ultimate mission is customer impact but you're only tracking vanity metrics, label it differently. When you frame the game around what you actually care about, the whole pursuit shifts.

P.P.S. If you want to start 2026 by reconnecting with what matters most and become the leader that brings out the best in your team – there’s still time to apply for the 2nd annual Sun Valley Founders Retreat. January 21-25. Click here to learn more >>