Academic Interests

John was a learner.

In this blog post/part of the John Jack memories, there are two distinct and unrelated stories connected to John’s fascination with learning.

Ed Locke, PhD and Gary Latham, PhD – The Founders of Goal Setting Theory

After the success of the GM GoalQuest was in our rear-view mirror, John and I asked Ed Locke, PhD[1] to speak with us about the remarkably successful incentive schemed John had created. Locke and his partner, Gary Latham, PhD[2] are recognized around the world as the founders of goal-setting theory. Before Locke and Latham, goal setting theory didn't exist. We were pumped to share this great idea with the guy whose noggin created the thing we were benefitting from. 

We set a time early one morning to speak with Ed from his home in Maryland. John and I huddled around the speakerphone at my desk. After some niceties and an explanation of GoalQuest, John casually mentioned, “And you know, Ed, General Motors used GoalQuest to sell an extra hundred thousand cars in 45 days last year. It’s pretty powerful.”

“Sounds like a good piece-work tool. Have you tried it with cash?” Locke asked unphased by our report on the scope of the impact of the incentive.

John and I were gobsmacked. Without saying a word, we both knew that Locke didn’t get it. So John jumped back in to try to save the day.

“What we’re really focused on, Ed, is that these dealers had to select their own goal based on their individual run rate. And the rewards were all-or-nothing…”

“Yeah, I got it,” Locke interrupted without affect. “So what else are you working on? 

After the call ended, John and I slunk low in our chairs. We gave it a shot and got nothing back.

On April 15, 2020, I had the chance to speak with Gary Latham, PhD – the co-founder of goal-setting theory. I couldn't pass up the chance to run two things by him: GoalQuest and Ed Locke's comments.

Gary was astounded by the cleverness of GoalQuest as a rule and reward structure. He praised John for such a fine invention and said, “I would have never matched up the exponential rewards with the all-or-nothing levels. Well done!” As for his partner’s abrasive comments, Gary said, “Yeah…Ed can be a character sometimes.”

After I finished with Gary, I rushed to call John to share the feedback. John took the good news in stride, but I hear an uplift in his voice when he said, “Well, at least somebody got it!”

George Loewenstein, PhD

George Loewenstein, PhD[3] is one of the highest-regarded researchers in the field of behavioral science.  His work, which spans a curriculum vitae of almost 40 pages, is foundational in the work of psychology and economics alike.

In my first meeting with George in his dusty office at Carnegie Mellon University in the Fall of 2010, I shared the data that was being amassed with GoalQuest. At that point, nearly 1,000,000 participants in 40+ countries had been through the GoalQuest model. As I spoke about the rules and rewards in GoalQuest, George's face softened. (He'd feared I would ask him to be a pitchman for BIW. That wasn't the case.)

“This is fascinating,” George said. He realized that this was special. “Tell me more about this model,” he inquired and didn’t stop asking for almost 20 minutes.

Because of the way the GoalQuest website (for users) was laid out, George created a survey about confidence and risk within goal setting. His work is yet to be published; however, more than 10,000 men and women in more than 20 countries provided data that will help provide a better understanding of the way we treat risk when we're setting goals. 

John’s work lives on.

[1] Edwin Locke, PhD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Locke 

[2] Gary Latham, PhD: https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/Faculty/FacultyBios/Latham 

[3] George Loewenstein, PhD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Loewenstein