There are several VALUES of targets. Not all targets are the same value or importance.
There are, in any org "understood" or continuing targets which came from FOs or Pol Ltrs and Mission Orders.
There is a group of "understood" targets which if overlooked, brings about inaction.
The first of these is
SOMEBODY THERE
Then
WORTHWHILE PURPOSE
Then
SOMEBODY TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE AREA OR ACTION
Then
FORM OF ORGANIZATION PLANNED WELL
Then
FORM OF ORGANIZATION HELD OR REESTABLISHED
Then
ORGANIZATION OPERATING
If we have the above "understood" targets we can go on BUT IF THESE DROP OUT OR ARE NOT SUBSTITUTED FOR then no matter what targets are set thereafter they will go rickety or fail entirely.
In the above there may be a continual necessity to reassert one or more of the "understood" targets WHILE trying to get further targets going.
Under this heading comes WHAT WE MUST DO TO OPERATE AT ALL.
This requires an inspection of both the area one is operating into and the factors or materiel or organization with which we are operating.
One then finds those points (sometimes WHILE operating) which stop or threaten future successes. And sets the overcoming of the vital ones as targets.
It is interesting that one can go into an art type "perfection" with targets and groom up Primary Targets far beyond the need to accomplish purposes.
You've seen chaps work all their lives to "get rich" or some such thing in order to "tour the world" and never make it. Some other fellow sets Tour the world and goes directly at it and does it. So there is a type of Target known as a Conditional Target: If I could just ..... then we could ..... and so accomplish ..... This is all right of course until it gets unreal.
There is a whole class of Conditional Targets that have no IF in them. These are legitimate targets. They have lots of WILL in them, "We will ...... and then ......"
Sometimes sudden "Breaks" show up and one must quickly take advantage of them. This is only "good luck". One uses it and replans quickly when it happens. One is on shaky ground to count on "good luck" as a solution.
A valid conditional Target would be
"We will go there and see if the area is useful."
All conditional targets are basically actions of gathering data first and if it is okay, then go into action on a vital target and Operating target basis.
This could add up like this:
CT 1 – Survey Lower Slobovia to see if it would be a suitable place for an org.
This survey done, if it is positive one then goes into Primary Targets and Operating Targets.
The Primary Targets would be
Thus we would establish Lower Slobovia. AND IT WOULD ALL GO OFF WELL TO THE DEGREE THE PRIMARY TARGETS WERE MADE, DONE, COMPLETED.
Primary Targets setting on Lower Slobovia would fail if some primary target were omitted in the first place (never set) or if the Conditional Target findings on LS were a false report.
Thus we are very hot on "false report" and very hot on "non-compliance".
An operating target would set the direction of advance and qualify it. It normally includes a scheduled TIME by which it has to be complete so as to fit into other targets.
Sometimes the time is set as "BEFORE". And there may be no time for the event that it must be done "before". Thus it goes into a rush basis "just in case".
To get all the Shoe Salesmen in Boston enrolled on a PE Course would be an operating target. This would then go into the framework of a primary target as to the remaining targets set.
Operating targets often look like "basic purpose". They can come before or after primary targets. But an operating target has its own series of Primary targets. To enroll all the shoe salesmen you need somebody in charge of it, a PE Supervisor, literature, a handbook for salesmen, etc. etc. which are all set as Primary targets.
Sometimes an elaborate Operating and Primary Target series falls apart because there was no Conditional Target set, i.e. to find out if Boston had any salesmen and which types were responsive. You might find the Operating Target had been set with no inspection.
So, again, we can move backward and find that an Operating Target needs a Conditional Target ahead of it – to wit, an inspection.
Setting quotas, usually against time, are production targets.
These often fail because they are unreal or issued for other reasons than production (i.e. propaganda).
As statistics most easily reflect production, an org or activity can be so PRODUCTION TARGET conscious that it fails to set Conditional, Operating or Primary Targets. When this happens, then Production is liable to collapse for lack of planning stated in other types of targets.
Production as the only target type can become so engulfing that Conditional Targets even when set are utterly neglected. Then Operating and Primary Targets get very unreal and stats go DOWN.
YOU HAVE TO INSPECT AND SURVEY AND GATHER DATA AND SET OPERATING AND PRIMARY TARGETS BEFORE YOU CAN SET PRODUCTION TARGETS.
A normal reason for down statistics on production is the vanishment of Primary Targets. These go out and nobody notices that this affects production badly. Production depends on other prior targets being kept in.
Programmes are made up of all types of targets coordinated and executed. ON TIME.
Programmes extend in time and go overdue to the extent the various types of targets are not set or not pushed home or drop out.
Programmes fail only because the various types of targets are not executed or are not kept in.
You can get done almost anything you want to do if types of targets are understood, set with reality, held in or completed.
People whose own purposes have failed often cannot either set or complete targets. The remedy is to rehabilitate their own purposes which then blows off the stops.
People who stop targets actively have failed so badly that they can only think in terms of stops.
This whole subject of Targets and purposes is probably a large one. These are just rough notes and the naming of the different types which is itself a considerable advance.
It is of help in grasping what is going on and gets one somewhere.