Chefs have long recognized that for a dish to be truly delicious, it must have the right balance of the five elements of taste: salty, sweet, sour, savory (sometimes called umami), and bitter. If you taste a dish and think, "It’s missing something,” it’s usually because it is lacking one of these flavors. A successful dish is one that has just the right balance.

A balance between five elements is also important in organizational goal setting. We’ve outlined these elements below. Every organization sets goals for itself, whether they're explicit or not, but precious few consistently master this fine blend. All too often, goal setting amounts to little more than the loose tracking of several random metrics—leading to a lot of noise and very little achievement.