ojectives and goals

09:33 Feb 19, 2008 

Hi hc_ha等，我们可否撇开英文原文，但从中文角度考察这个问题？中文“目的和目标”，比较起来，前者趋向于指努力的方向，而后者指努力获取的东西、达到的结果。目的指向定了下来，但具体目标，即具体要一一获取的东西，尚未定下来。比如临床研究，我们一般说研究的目的，如果说目标的话，一定指具体要达到的标准或结果。

02:40 Feb 19, 2008 

This action plan might consist with a series of actions --typo.. should be "consist of ".

02:32 Feb 19, 2008 

以上的内容，是为分析“抽象目标”和“具体目标”之间的关系，还有“总体目标”和“具体目标”之间的关系，还有四个概念之间的关系而写。它们是相关又带有不同。

02:27 Feb 19, 2008 

Company level ,General goal : To improve sales (abstract)
particular goals at Department level, ( abstract)
Sales Dept. To improve sales figure
Production Dept. To improve product quality
Logistic Dept. To ensure supply chain working more efficiently, in order to supply the merchandises and goods on time to the outlets/shops etc.
Advertising Dept. To heavily advertise the target products for promotion
Service Dept. To ensure the quality of after-sales service

Objectives at department level (tangible/measurable)
Sales dept. the base figure is A, to increase this month’s figure
by 20% of the base figure, eg. the previous month, or of the same period last year,etc. To set an actual figure, to make the goal measurable. Or you can call “objective” a target. Target and objective are interchangeable in this context. We always say “sales target”, it normally refers to a set figure we want to achieve.
Action plan at dept. level
Sales dept.---- how to carry out the plan of increasing the sales figure by 20%, this is the action plan about. To implement this plan, General sales manager discusses the planning with the regional sales managers, ask them to convey this message to their shop managers and staff, and make a action plan available to them. This action plan might consist with a series of actions, sales staff selling skills training, product knowledge training etc.

Particular goals at sales person level: To improve sales ( abstract )

Objectives: How do you know it is improved. How to measure it? Align with the objectives at dept level, by 20%. if a shop normally has a weekly sales figure 100, then the target will be set at 120. if a shop has 6 full-time staff members, then each of them should come up with 20 sales weekly. So the objective or target at sales person level would be 120/weekly for the shop, 20/weekly each staff member. ( all these are measurable and tangible )
Action plan at sales person level:
Action: what /how/when to do. What to do is improve the sales figures, how to do is improve sales skills and product knowledge etc, when to do is when you will go for sales skills training etc. To assess the result of the action plan, the company will send mystery shoppers to the shop, to assess your sales skills. Also it can be assessed by your performance, your sales figures etc.

Conclusion: One Goal(abstract) /general or particular objectives(objective goals)/targets(measurable) action plans. At the same time, they apply to different levels respectively

00:35 Feb 19, 2008 

no everyone will achieve it---- typo.... should be "not everyone"

00:30 Feb 19, 2008 

someone set---- typo, should be "someone sets"

00:28 Feb 19, 2008 

Goal: to be good at English. Objective: to learn 10 words everyday. Action: for example: 1. to mechanically memorize 10 words from the dictionary. Or 2. to learn 10 words through reading articles. Goals are abstract, cannot be measured if it is achieved, while objectives are measurable. (whether 10 words are surely learned daily). To achieve objectives, action plan is required which may vary from individual to individual, as mentioned previously in the example.

This is a common phenomenon. Someone set many goals in mind, those goals abstractly exit only in his mind, they cannot be measured, you cannot measure how much and how it is done. Just like the above example, “I want to improve my English”, this is an abstract goal. Many people have goals like this; however, no everyone will achieve it. The reason being is that there are no objectives set.

When the objectives are set, just like that one in the example “to learn 10 words everyday”, it is an objective, which is measurable whether it is done or not and how it is done. However, it doesn’t mean the objective will be achieved automatically once it is set. The next step is to set “action plan”, a plan to put the objectives into action, as the one in example, mechanical memorizing or learning through study such as reading? They are two different types of action plan. Taking action is “tangiblizing” the objectives, in other words, putting objectives into action.

00:00 Feb 19, 2008 

goal是抽象目标？未必吧，goal完全有可能找代非抽象的长远目标。我觉得Jason解释的“整体目标”更显合理，这是指宏观目标，与具体的微观目标（objective）相对。

23:12 Feb 18, 2008 

具体目标(subjective)--- typo.... should be 具体目标(objective)：

23:07 Feb 18, 2008 

抽象目标（goal) ：学好英文。具体目标(subjective)：每天到学会10个单词。具体行动(action)：例如：1.从字典上死背10个单词。或者2.从阅读具体文章过程中学习10单词。抽象的目标是无法衡量是否做到了，而具体目标是可以衡量的（是否确实每天学习了10个单词）。为了达到具体目标，行动计划（action plan)会因人而异。如例子中所见。
Usually the **goals** I set are broadly framed without specific** objectives**
我通常订立抽象的目标，空泛的而缺乏具体的目标。这是经常见到的现象。某人脑子里订了许多的目标，这些目标，只是抽象地在他的脑子中存在，无法衡量做了多少，无法衡量其执行情况如何。例如以上举的例子，我要学好英文。这是一个抽象的目标。很多人都会有这样的抽象目标，但是，不是每个人都达到它。没有达到的原因，是没有具体的目标。
如果有了具体目标，象例子中说的，“每天要学习10个单词”，这个就是具体目标，是可以衡量是否做到了，做的怎么样。然后，定了具体目标，不意味着就一定实现它。接下来的是确定“行动计划（action plan）”，如何实现“具体目标”的计划。如例子中所见，死背，还是从阅读等应用过程中学习？这是两个不同形式的行动计划。在采取实际行动去“实化”具体目标，就是take aciton，把行动计划付诸行动。
在保持具体目标不变的前提下，行动计划可以根据行动的结果/效果进行调整。例如，如果某人发现，死背不太适合他，可以把死背改为活学。反过来，某人觉得活学不太凑效，也可以尝试死背。同时某人发觉，把两者结合起来，对他更有效果。等等。不管行动计划如何调整，那个 “每天学10个单词” 的具体目标不变，那么，“学好英文”的抽象目标，就可以在具体目标的层面上得到衡量，就可以知道自己究竟朝着那个目标前进了多少。
另外，当一个具体适合某人的行动计划凑效的情形下，就可以考虑把具体目标提高一些。例如，当某个凑效的行动计划，能让您每天在限定的时间（例如2小时）内，轻而易举就达到了学习10个单词。那么，可以在限定时间不变的前提下，把学习量提高，譬如提高到15个。或者，在学习量不变的前提下，把时间缩短为1个小时。通过这样，来协调具体目标和行动计划间的互动关系。

22:25 Feb 18, 2008 

Usually the goals I set are broadly framed without specific objectives---- change the positions of these two words, it will make sense. Thanks!