15. Implementing Continuous Goal-Setting 

               Problem or situation. Some of the quotes from President Kimball (Kikuchi, 1981) said: 

            Now I want to say a word about missionary productivity--particularly goals. We do believe in setting goals. We live by goals. . . . Our most important goal is to bring the gospel to all people. We must convert more people. We must find ways and means (p. 59).

            I FEEL THAT WE MUST USE A GOAL PROGRAM AND LET EVERY MISSIONARY MAKE HIS OWN GOAL (p.57). 

            Let your missionaries live by goals, but let them make their own goals rather than for you to set the goals. Just stir them so that their goals will be higher (p. 148).     

Both my missionaries and I had shied away from setting goals for specific numbers of converts. We had goals to baptize "hundreds and thousands" and other such ambiguities, but not many missionaries were setting specific, concrete goals to work toward. Or, if they were setting them, they were forgotten--usually unachieved--at the end of each month. There was no accountability, especially in the short run. A week would go by, then a month, then six months and a year. With goals unachieved, even unmentioned, the missionary would complete his mission and return home. It was as though goals were entirely outside and independent of missionary activities. President Benson (1976) had also counseled mission presidents to work with goals:

            The setting of personal baptismal goals by missionaries should be explained in detail with specific illustrations and testimonies of others' successes. Mission presidents need to be converted to goal setting themselves, in all phases of missionary work, before they will be capable of converting their missionaries to this concept (p. 6). 

After reading President Kimball's and President Benson's words, I felt that not having specific, concrete, realistic goals was holding us back. President Kimball confirmed my feelings. Referring to a talk by another of the general authorities, President Kimball had said: 

            I remember in one of these meetings Elder Thomas S. Monson spoke on the program of goals, and I got from his excellent address that we must have goals to make progress, encouraged by keeping records. I believe it is proper for a missionary to set his own goals, as the swimmer or the jumper does. 

I believe Elder Monson said, "Progress is easier when it is timed, checked, and measured." "If you don't play to win, why keep the score? If you don't keep the score, how do you know if you win or lose?" (Kikuchi, 1981, p. 60). 

            GOALS SHOULD ALWAYS BE MADE TO A POINT THAT WILL MAKE US REACH AND STRAIN. Success should not necessarily be gauged by a1ways reaching the goal set, but by progress and attainment (p. 80). 

For those missionaries who did set goals, lack of any accountability for them often rendered the goals meaningless. For example, if a set of missionaries had a goal of three baptisms for the month, it did not seem too difficult at the beginning of the month. Even after the first week went by with no real prospects, they still felt they had time to find and teach people. A few more days would pass, mid-month came; then as the end of the month approached, suddenly it was too late. The new month brought the complacency of "we have the whole month ahead of us," and the cycle began again.

It seemed clear to me that if we were to be successful as individual missionaries or as a mission, we had to get serious about goals. There were two separate actions associated with this problem or situation. 

            Action taken (first)  (12-78) EACH MISSIONARY AND THE MISSION PRESIDENT RECORD INDIVIDUAL BAPTISMAL GOALS AND FOLLOW UP ON THEM. (Productivity label: Information.)

In my bi-monthly personal interviews with the missionaries, I began asking them what their convert baptismal goals were, what they had achieved so far toward their goals, what their goals were for the next months. Both of us wrote the goals down. Then, at the next interview, I followed up by asking what progress they had made toward the goals. I often worked with them to reduce their goals--helped them set more immediate and achievable goals rather than "dream" goals.

Later, I modified the weekly letter-to-the-President report form to include a goal box where each missionary continuously reported his goals for his entire mission, his goals for the current month, and his progress towards achieving them. 

Results of the action. The most immediate result was that the goals began to come down in size. Missionaries who had had goals of bringing "thousands" into the Church, now set goals to bring a hundred or fifty or less. That might seem like we were moving in the wrong direction, but the truth was that the missionaries were finally beginning to look at goals differently, as something they felt they could actually achieve rather than as "dreams" that were irrelevant to current activities. With these more modest goals, they began to move toward achieving some of them. 

Action taken (second). (1-79) HAVE EACH COMPANION ESTABLISH AND REPORT WEEKLY, AS WELL AS MONTHLY, GOALS, NOT ONLY FOR CONVERT BAPTISMS PER SE, BUT FOR THE ENABLING ACTIVITIES, TOO. (Productivity label:

Motivational.)

In addition to convert baptism goals, I had the missionaries set goals for proselyting activities which would lead to baptisms, such as number of new contacts made, number of introduction lessons taught, number of regular lessons taught, and so forth. These were the direct enablers of future baptisms, and they could move early, set those types of goals, and monitor them each week.

Bimonthly interviews and weekly letters were too slow for monitoring these weekly goals. So, with the help of my assistants, the Zone Leaders, and the District Leaders, I monitored them by phone at the beginning of each week. I knew each missionary's goals and what progress each was making towards achieving them. 

Results of the action. When the missionaries began setting goals for each week and accounting each week for their progress toward them, they began to overcome the"lull" that used to occur at the first of the month. They began to realize that getting the contacts, the introductions, the lessons, and so forth early in the month were the keys to achieving their baptismal goals. They began to understand in a practical manner the overall process and flow of missionary work. Rather than hope for a last-minute miracle, they realized they needed to do things differently. They realized they needed to teach many people in order to have baptisms; they needed to introduce the gospel to many more people in order to have enough to teach, and so forth. As a result of their understanding this, they began to have more control over the process. In this regard, one of President Kimball's quotes took on special meaning: 

            IF WE REALLY WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, WE CAN! BUT SOMETIMES TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, WE MUST DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY AND BETTER! (Kikuchi, 1981, p. 43). 

Many of my missionaries were beginning to see that, by doing things differently, they really could make a difference.

Things Learned

The primary challenge during this period had been to give specific and concrete support to the new vision that was beginning to take root in the mission. This meant providing the missionaries with specific skills and techniques--specific things they could do--to begin to achieve the new vision. It meant developing better contacting and teaching skills, doing better planning and goal setting, and making better use of time. It meant that at least some of the missionaries had to demonstrate--through baptismal results--that this vision could be accomplished here and now and by us.

During the second three months we began to experience some small growth in numbers of convert baptisms: 28 in October, 62 in November, and 65 in December. The 65 baptisms in December gave us almost half a baptism per missionary that month. Now, instead of being among the lowest producing missions in the area, we were right in the middle--we were now average. But average was not our goal. Average was not the vision we had. Indeed, President Kimball had said, 

            Now we can hardly be content with our record. WE MUST FIND WAYS TO INSPIRE AND TEACH BETTER WAYS OF DOING MISSIONARY WORK (Kikuchi, 1981, p. 121). 

Six months had passed since the mission had opened. We weren't flying yet, but I felt we had made some progress toward the launching pad.

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