Improving the valuation of a company will clearly imply changes need to be made to the ways in which the management team functions. The implications are clear: the growth strategies that are inhibited by the corporate dysfunctions require courage to come against the inertia, politics and fear in management teams to address the dysfunctional behaviors. What is required is a new definition applied to the goals set in organizations. Essentially, there are two types of goals: task goals and behavioral goals. Nadler identifies these as one, production of results and two, as maintenance of effectiveness. Task goals are those that we normally set in organizations – the goals essential to getting the things done that are essential to the mission. Those goals address the output of the management team or the organization as a whole. They concern the mission of the organization – its purpose for being – Nadler’s “results.” They are part of ‘doing the business we’re in’ – what the organization does. For example, task goals of manufacturing organizations have to do with customer service, quality, on-time delivery, production schedules and so on.
The second type of goal is seldom addressed by management teams, but even more critical to the success of the team and the organization as a whole. That is the behavioral goal – essential to Nadler’s maintenance of effectiveness. The behavioral goals of a team address themselves to how the management team behaves internally to itself – and does not address its output. Another way to think about behavioral goals is to consider the team process as the team goes about its work, conducts its meetings, and its interactions with others inside and outside the team. Behavioral goals are derived by examining two viewpoints: one is what positive behaviors (strengths) the team desires to engage in the future. These can be arrived at by considering past successful teams each person has experienced. The second means to develop behavioral goals is to consider the negative behaviors (weaknesses) the management team wants to avoid (addressing them becomes a future strength), again by reflecting on past failures team members have encountered (Figure 2).
The team will accomplish its task goals only to the degree it accomplishes and masters its behavioral goals – and in fact, risks setting inappropriate task goals for itself or the organization to the degree it is dysfunctional or is not achieving its behavioral goals. Again, Nadler (Nadler) points out that “… maintenance of effectiveness is required to ensure consistent production of results.” Since the results a management team achieves derive from its effectiveness – that is, its behaviors, then improved business results require implementation of changed behaviors.