New Year’s resolutions, project charters, and goals all serve the same core purpose: to identify something important, to establish a framework for how it will be accomplished, and to contain some sort of measure of success. The question is, “What can we do to make our goals, resolutions, and projects more successful?” The key is getting “SMART” at the beginning. As Mary Poppins said, “Well begun is half done.”
SMART Goals
At its core, a goal is something a person or organization wants to accomplish. It’s an answer to the question “What’s important?” SMART is an acronym for a simple checklist that can be used to improve the quality of a goal:
- Specific
- Measurable (also Meaningful)
- Actionable (also Agreed on and Appropriate)
- Realistic (also Relevant)
- Time bound
Making the goal Specific keeps it focused. Focusing the work addresses three of the reasons for failure brought forward in Shakir’s article: (1) incomplete requirements, (2) unclear expectations, and (3) scope creep. Being specific helps ensure that all of the people reading the goal have the same understanding of the desired change.
Making the goal Measurable serves two purposes. Having clear measures of success helps further refine the intended outcomes of the goal, making the Specific even more specific. Measures also establish accountability at the beginning, preventing changes to intent in the middle of the work and minimizing scope creep.
Making the goal Meaningful helps address Shakir’s reasons of poor alignment, lack of executive support, and lack of resources. Organizational leaders will support—both through their actions and through resource allocation—work they believe will help align with other work to move the organization forward.
Making the goal Actionable ensures that the goal includes a clear path forward to success. Actionable goals help establish the milestones of a goal implementation project, essential to address the poor alignment cause of project failure described in Shakir’s article.
The goal must also be Agreed on to ensure vertical and horizontal support across the organization, reducing the likelihood of the goals being siloed. (Siloed goals can be identified if leadership says, “This is the Finance Department’s goal” rather than “This is our goal.”) Ensuring that the goal is Appropriate further reinforces that the goal is Meaningful to the organization.
If a goal isn’t Realistic, people won’t take it seriously. Although “stretch goals” or “aspirational goals” are very common, they belong in the organization’s vision statement where they can establish a long-term direction. The goal must also be Relevant for the same reasons it needs to be Meaningful and appropriate, ensuring support.
Making the goal Time bound establishes the foundation for pacing and resource allocation. Goals with short time frames require intense and immediate focus; goals with long-term time frames are accomplished gradually. Goals with no time constraint are never finished.
Setting Achievable Goals
Given all of that, what does a SMART goal look like? Over the years, I’ve been asked to create templates for SMART goals, which inevitably result in awkward goals. It’s best to write down a goal, compare it against the SMART checklist, and then refine it until it meets all of the SMART criteria.
Here’s an example of what that might look like:
First draft: The organizations’ debt load will be sustainable. This is Specific, vaguely Measurable, and hopefully Meaningful, Agreed on, and Relevant. It might be Actionable and isn’t Time bound.
Second draft: The organization’s debt payments will be less than 20% of the overall budget. This is more Specific; the term “sustainable” has been operationally defined as being less than 20% of the overall budget. It is also readily Measurable. It still isn’t Time bound.
Third draft: By fiscal year 2030, the organization’s debt payments will be less than 20% of the overall budget. This is Specific, Measurable, and Time bound. It has a long time frame, and is Realistic given the nature of the debt. It represents a typical well-written SMART goal.
It’s important to note that the third draft does not include most of the SMART checklist. Trying to put everything into the goal would result in a long paragraph and would lose the simple elegance of a well written SMART goal. The remainder of the items are addressed through the process of writing the goal, not making it into the goal itself.
The best way to do this is to use a series of questions. The following questions can serve as a good foundation, but each organization should make adjustments to meet its unique needs:
- Is the goal important to all of us? (Meaningful, Relevant)
- Is the goal a priority for all of us? (Agreed on, Time bound)
- Does the goal provide enough specificity that we can develop a realistic implementation plan? (Specific, Actionable, Realistic)
- Is the goal focused enough that the risks of incomplete requirements, unclear expectations, and scope creep are minimized? (Specific)
- Does the goal have a reasonable time frame? (Realistic, Time bound)
- Do we have sufficient resources to achieve the goal? (Realistic)
- Does the goal hold us accountable for the change? (Measurable)
- Does the goal minimize the risks the change will fail? (SMART)
Ensuring that goals are SMART can help organizations implement meaningful change and reduce the risk of failed changes—something all of us likely consider important.