The genius of conflicting goals
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Last week, I finished reading Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. I was struck by many of his ideas. One of them was that successful companies "go out of their way to choose conflicting goals."
In the book, Will Guidara uses Southwest Airlines as an example. They chose two conflicting goals: 1) to be the lowest cost airline in America, and 2) to be #1 in both customer and employee satisfaction. It was not either or. It was both and.
Goals that seem to contradict each other forces us to innovate and be creative.
Guidara advises us to "recognize the inherent friction between the two goals" and to lean into the contradiction so we can integrate the opposing ideas. For him and his business, it was hospitality and excellence. "In order to succeed, [they] need to be good at both."
The orchestra and opera industry can benefit from a similar mindset.
Here are 6 sets of conflicting goals we can choose to embrace:
Honoring traditions and breaking new ground
Satisfied audiences and satisfied musicians
Maximizing profit and taking care of people
Excelling in company goals and excelling in musician goals
Having high standards and having high empathy
Building status and ensuring equity
We can see these pairings as creative problems to solve. How can we achieve both equally well? How can we reframe how we think about each concept so they may jive with the other? What are the win-win scenarios? What are the lose-lose scenarios? How could this spark curiosity to reveal hidden paths forward?
I'm excited by all of this.
Having to choose one goal over another can feel limiting, and choosing to see both being possible can feel liberating. The challenge is that the latter can also feel uncomfortable, uncertain, and extremely difficult. That's the barrier we all can work to overcome.
The six examples above are conflicting goals that are important for me in my professional work.
I'm curious, what are pairings that would make you feel challenged, excited, inspired, and stretched toward growth?
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