Could set­ting goals be detri­men­tal to achiev­ing our tar­gets? Yes, say a num­ber of “man­age­ment schol­ars” research­ing the issue, but only because they may lead to “bursts of intense effort in the short term” or be too nar­row and poorly defined.

The com­pre­hen­sive arti­cle look­ing at their work has some inter­est­ing anec­dotes and some good advice for those who con­sis­tently stum­ble when it comes to set­ting and keep­ing goals.

What’s often required is a “learn­ing goal” — one where some­one pledges to come up with, for exam­ple, five approaches to a thorny prob­lem — rather than a per­for­mance goal that assumes that the prob­lem will auto­mat­i­cally be solved. […]

Rather than reflex­ively rely­ing on goals, argues Max Baz­er­man, a Har­vard Busi­ness School pro­fes­sor and the fourth coau­thor of Goals Gone Wild [pdf], we might also be bet­ter off cre­at­ing work­places and schools that fos­ter our own inher­ent inter­est in the work. “There are lots of orga­ni­za­tions where peo­ple want to do well, and they don’t need those goals,” he says.