It's About Learning

The notion of a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) was first introduced by Jim Collins back in 1994 in the book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. Collins and many others since have used the notion of a BHAG to help define a visionary type goal that is more strategic and emotionally compelling rather then being simply tactical.

While you don’t have explicitly to use the term BHAG in presenting your course goal you should use the focus of the BHAG in your design and development to ensure that your goal is strategic and emotionally compelling enough to speak to where you students will be after the course. The goal should focus more on who the students will be or become as a result of the course and not just focus on what they will be able to do.

Whenever you are using a backward design model and are working within an outcomes based education (OBE) framework a clear focus on who you want the learner to become at the end of the course will help you to clearly articulate the course outcomes—which should focus on what the learner needs to do to get achieve the BHAG.

A big enough but still achievable BHAG will also address a fundamental motivator that you need to consider when designing a learning environment—the why. As Simon Sinek argues, people aren’t interested in what they need to do as much as they are interested in why they need to do it. Addressing the why also address the fact that we are much more emotionally than rationally motivated and that the head won’t go where the heart hasn’t been.

References

BHAG [Online image]. Retrieved June 13, 2016 from http://www.printaudit.com/premier/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/BHAG.jpg

Collins, J. C., & Porras, J. 1994. Built to Last: successful habits of visionary companies. New York: HarperBusiness.

Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. Penguin.