The goal is whatever the hero wants MOST.
The term “goal” has many near-synonyms such as mission, vision, purpose, intent, objective, milestone, outcome, need, key performance indicator, the “promised land,” and more.
The word “goal” can be more of a mundane label for “that which is most wanted.” However, this usage is rooted in an entertainment storytelling perspective. While there is no one way this is done, in my experience, professional film and TV writers would be more likely to say that the goal is what the hero REALLY wants, whereas an objective is what the hero wants inside a particular scene or sequence.
I like the term “goal” because it is simple, has a positive connotation, and applies to both entertainment and business stories. The use of the term “objective” also parallels. Within entertainment, “objective” refers to a character’s want within a scene. Within business, your objective is what you hope to achieve in a specific meeting.
The goal will have external and internal facets which mirror each other. The external facet will be something in the real world, e.g. defeating the enemy, solving the mystery, or marrying The One. The internal facet will be emotional, e.g., revenge, justice, being the best, wanting to be loved.
The important thing when determining the goal is to use your imagination and empathy. Storytelling isn’t an abstract, intellectual exercise. There’s no way to tell if you’re really on the right track with story analysis without being able to empathize with the hero and feel their goal in your gut.
This is slightly easier to do in stories for entertainment because they are the result of an intensive selection process. For example, the average cost to make and market a studio film is about $100M. Before a star attaches themselves, before the greenlight, before all the hard work goes into building sets and shooting and editing, the story needs to be clear, the hero’s need will be urgent, primal, visceral. Otherwise it’s not worth the risk for key players to invest in the project. So when you’re analyzing an entertainment story from produced content, that material has been honed quite a bit.
Stories for business also involve empathizing with the decision-maker and checking in with your gut. However, standards are (thankfully) different. In part, it’s because it’s unlikely the VP of Customer Success is willing to sacrifice their life to raise customer renewal rates by 10%.
What you’re looking for when analyzing or constructing a story for business will be visceral within a professional context. You’re thinking more about status, strategy, ambition, and avoiding embarrassment. These can also be goals within an entertainment story. The difference is that, in an entertainment story, the fictional hero will be extremely focused, by design, on that one goal. In a business story, a hero is a real person who can be living more than one story at the same time.
Your job, in a business context, is to consider your own objective – what you want the decision-maker to think, feel, or do – then figure out how to position your objective inside of the decision-maker’s story. This means empathizing and understanding what they want in a way that “fits,” that honors the principle of equivalency, with your objective.
The decision-maker’s goal, in this sense, is a check on your objective. If their goal doesn’t feel urgent or equivalent enough, then either they are not the right decision-maker for what you want, or they are, and you need to change your objective to fit within their story.