Tight but Realistic Targets -- Basic

Some construction managers believe that you can motivate construction supervisors and workers by giving them "stretch" goals ---- targets for doing the work for reduced budgets or schedules which have never been achieved.

The proven approach to establishing targets for construction are based on the concept of "tight but realistic"

Construction people like challenges, so having a "tight" target is a good approach, but the target needs to be "realistic" also. Targets need to be achievable with a little extra effort, but never unachievable. If it's never been done before it probably isn't achievable.

With an impossible target, studies have shown that people give up trying and the result is worse than the typical results.

With targets which are to easy to achieve, people relax and meet the target spending more hours and time than needed.

So the best approach is to use "tight but realistic" targets.

By the way, it is possible to do things that have never been achieved....but these take a special initiative with extra planning and approaches...you don't get the unachievable by just setting it as a target