Harvard Yale Written Goals Study – fact or fiction?

3% of Harvard MBAs Make Ten Times as Much as the Other 97% Combined

..or… Why 3% of Yale MBAs Make Ten Times as Much as the Other 97% Combined

Or so the written goal study story goes regarding personal effectiveness and performance…

The power of written goals

One question was said to have been asked:

“Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?”

Is your OD or change process based on fact or fiction? Often methods and strategies we use in business and our organizations are based on what we read. But can we trust everything we read?

For a long time I have heard of the 1953 Harvard study or the 1979 Yale study on the effects of written goals of graduates on the long term performance or people. many coaching, training and personal development providers quote one or other as the reason why we should each have written life and performance goals.

Many often quote it as being:

There was a study done at Harvard between 1979 and 1989. Graduates of the MBA program were asked “Have you set clear written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” The results of that question were:

• • Only 3% had written goals and plans
  •  13% had goals but not in writing
  •  84% had no specific goals at all

10 years later Harvard interviewed the members of that class again and found:

1. The 13% who had goals but not in writing were earning on average twice as much as the 84% of those who had no goals at all

2. The 3% who had clear, written goals were earning on average 10 times as much as the other 97% of graduates all together. The only difference between the groups is the clarity of the goals they had for themselves

OR

In 1953 a team of researchers interviewed Yale’s graduating seniors, asking them whether they had written down the specific goals that they wanted to achieve in life.

Twenty years later the researchers tracked down the same cohort and found that the 3% of people who had specific goals all those years before had accumulated more personal wealth than the other 97% of their classmates combined.

Now while there is evidence that people completing Harvard based MBAs do out perform others this is not linked to written goals per se.

Really?

I was intrigued by this and 2 years ago started research onto the origins to find the original research data. 100s of hours and dozens of emails later the results were in – there was no such study at Harvard or Yale!

Indeed even Harvard themselves say:

It has been determined that no “goals study” of the Class of 1953 actually occurred. In recent years, we have received a number of requests for information on a reported study based on a survey administered to the Class of 1953 in their senior year and a follow-up study conducted ten years later. This study has been described as how one’s goals at graduation related to success and annual incomes achieved during the period.

The secretary of the Class of 1953, who had served in that capacity for many years, did not know of [the study], nor did any of the fellow class members he questioned. In addition, a number of Yale administrators were consulted and the records of various offices were examined in an effort to document the reported study. There was no relevant record, nor did anyone recall the purported study of the Class of 1953, or any other class.
(Source : Where can I find the Yale study from 1953 about goal-setting?)

It seems that there were two early “reporters” of these studies – Mark McCormack (What They Don’t Teach You in the Harvard Business School)  & Brian Tracy (Goals!). Other self development gurus that have helped to perpetuate the myth include Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins and Tom Bay in ”Look within or Do without”

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/655551

If you run a Google or Bing search for “Yale written goals study” or “Harvard written goals study” you will find 1000s of references – none of them true! (much like the references for SMART objectives in an earlier piece).

Interestingly enough in 1996 the FAST company looked into this research and discovered that it was a myth back then! So why is it still being perpetuated 15 years later? Read the text here.

THIS RESEARCH DID NOT HAPPEN – This can only be described as a myth or urban legend amongst life coaches, consultants and personal development/ success gurus.

If any training or coaching provider quotes this “research or study” – then seriously question EVERYTHING else they say!!!

If you are into “self-help” books by any of the authors listed above, then ask yourself this question….

“If they publish untruths like this without any research can we really believe anything they say in their books?”

UPDATE 2011

Written goal study Dominican University of California 2007

This research was not done by teams at Yale or Harvard, but by Gail Matthews at Dominican University. You can read her research summary here

This study provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of three coaching tools:

• accountability,
• commitment and
• writing down one’s goals.

This now means that there now is a study demonstrating that writing one’s goal enhances goal achievement. Although unlike the miss-quoted Yale or Harvard research this was not a longitudinal study

 UPDATE Sept 2011

It seems there is a new/ varient myth that this “research” is attached to : ” A research study by the Ford Foundation found that of the 10% of the population with specific goals…” etc  well as you can guess, none of these sites have any credable references either. The story goes on…

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RapidBI is an organizational effectiveness consultancy based in the UK but working internationally.
© RapidBI & Mike Morrison 2011 - this article/ page is free to copy and use on the condition that an active link back and reference is made to this site and page. Thank you for your understanding and co-operation.

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Related posts that may be of interest to you:

1. Write SMART objectives & Goals
2. Writing academic reports and references
3. 10 Tips for Setting SMART-er Goals and Objectives

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