What's in a word?

Targets  - very much in the news at present, particularly as regards Amber Rudd and immigration.  I've mentioned several times before that I am an ex-Civil Servant and know all about targets.  The problem is that it's one of those words that means different things to different people - and even to the same people at different times.  In other words, it means whatever you want it to mean - which is why politicians find it so useful.  I remember one of my bosses trying to get the idea across to us - "If you don't know where you are going" he said "how can you ever know when you've got there?".  And that's as good an argument for having targets as I have ever heard.  So where's the problem?  Such a target as he was talking about is an aim, an objective, something to measure your progress against, and as such it rarely causes problems.  On the other hand, if you are told that you are expected to produce x widgets a day, and if you don't, you will be considered a failure, that's a whole different matter.  Can you see the distinction?  Because it's not that easy.  I always think the acid test is - what's the opposite of success?  If it's failure, then that's the bad type of target, whereas if it's re-assess and keep going, that's the good type.