--- title: The Tension Created By Stretch Goals description: "Low goals do cause lower performance and high goals increase the percentage of cheating" canonical: https://time.com/3773983/tension-created-by-stretch-goals/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-11T11:00:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:20:13.570Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Tension Created By Stretch Goals og:description: "Low goals do cause lower performance and high goals increase the percentage of cheating" og:url: https://time.com/3773983/tension-created-by-stretch-goals/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte39a08aa0f904ea6/698787062dce0137329de682/corbis-42-26544583-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: basketball-ring-backboard og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Tension Created By Stretch Goals twitter:description: "Low goals do cause lower performance and high goals increase the percentage of cheating" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte39a08aa0f904ea6/698787062dce0137329de682/corbis-42-26544583-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Tension Created By Stretch Goals by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish May 11, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  Seoul, South Korea --- Basketball ring and backboard --- Image by © Sung-Il Kim/Corbis Seoul, South Korea --- Basketball ring and backboard --- Image by © Sung-Il Kim/CorbisCorbis Images by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish May 11, 2015 11:00 AM UTC It’s one thing to set big stretch goals and it’s another to acknowledge the tension and incentives that creates within an organization. Charlie Munger, speaking at the 2000 annual meeting for Wesco Financial, explains: --- > “” --- Each organization has to find its own way. --- > “” --- **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/)**_._** **Join over 50,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3773983/tension-created-by-stretch-goals/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3773983/tension-created-by-stretch-goals/"},"headline":"The Tension Created By Stretch Goals","datePublished":"2015-05-11T11:00:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:20:13.570Z","description":"\"Low goals do cause lower performance and high goals increase the percentage of cheating\"","url":"https://time.com/3773983/tension-created-by-stretch-goals/","keywords":["society","Psychology","Business topic","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte39a08aa0f904ea6/698787062dce0137329de682/corbis-42-26544583-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shane Parrish","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte39a08aa0f904ea6/698787062dce0137329de682/corbis-42-26544583-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"basketball-ring-backboard","caption":"basketball-ring-backboard","creditText":"Corbis Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3773983/tension-created-by-stretch-goals/","name":"The Tension Created By Stretch Goals"}}]}] ```