This post was originally published in March of 2016 on another platform:
I don't know about you, but words like goal, objective, mission, and purpose can become intermingled in my head sometimes. The meanings can feel synonymous or at least hard to distinguish. Reading definitions from differing sources doesn't really seem to help either. Last year, in a class I attended on Executive Decision Making as part of my post-graduate work at George Washington University our professor, Dr. Ernest H. Forman, shared a concrete example after his verbal attempt to define them was not very successful either. The example helped me think of these ideas clearer. For those old enough to remember the space race (or learned about it in History class) this example will be familiar. Here's the slide from the class:
I don't know about you, but words like goal, objective, mission, and purpose can become intermingled in my head sometimes. The meanings can feel synonymous or at least hard to distinguish. Reading definitions from differing sources doesn't really seem to help either. Last year, in a class I attended on Executive Decision Making as part of my post-graduate work at George Washington University our professor, Dr. Ernest H. Forman, shared a concrete example after his verbal attempt to define them was not very successful either. The example helped me think of these ideas clearer. For those old enough to remember the space race (or learned about it in History class) this example will be familiar. Here's the slide from the class:
Interestingly enough, an edition of IEEE Technology and Society that came out about the same time I was in the class had an article about the Apollo missions, and how it was "sold" to the public. This article points to the mission of getting a man on the moon and safely back to earth, but emphasizes outcomes hoped for in the more narrow effort of securing public support. Public support of the program ultimately meant public support of the cost. Here is the article:
apollo.pdf
apollo.pdf
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