Writing goals "SMARTLY" (the new acronym to remember)
Setting goals is a strategic exercise which isn’t going to yield unless there's effort. Given today's timeline ruled by AI here's how you write goals "SMARTLY", set teams & yourself up for success.
Scope:
There is enough resource widely available on goals and their curation mostly pointing to making them SMART (Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound) the dictates how a GOAL ought to be framed / written and this could apply to individuals / teams / organizations. When we’d touch upon the framework a bit, the scope of this article goes beyond just goal setting and transcends into common problems people face in management that comprises of but isn’t limited to: clarity, alignment, actionability, alacrity, inspirational.
Quote:
“To set a goal is just the first step - the highest possible generic view; the strength of which so often depends on how easily it could be broken down to represent granularity encompassing all outcomes & also outputs so as to be enable one to smoothly transition over each of those phases”
Illustration:
Take a good look at the illustration below.
There are 3 cases here.
CASE 1: when the person driving knows exactly where he is now (7th milestone out of the total 35) and the also kind of has an idea as to where is destination is as the milestones are there to keep guiding him along the way.
CASE 2: when the person has been just driving, don’t know where he currently is, may be entirely clueless about his destination, he also isn’t sure whether he is on the right path to get there.
CASE 3: consider the person driving knows his destination, has a clear understanding of it as well, but isn’t sure & carries confusions to a varying degree about which route to take so as to get there faster, which is more probable over any given practical situations as applicable to people, teams & orgs.
When it is needless to say, one’d any day prefer CASE 1 as opposed to any of the others, that degree of granular clarity comes with quite a bit of an effort towards scoping the dynamics & also paying a lot of heed to all things that could turn into a disfavor, planning alternate routes so as to steer clear of the situations in cases where there is no viable solution in sight.
So, it stands more than proven how going in with a preset plan could work in favor. In other words, the fact that you have set a goal ought to mandatorily translate to you having all of these:
clear understanding of the ultimate goal / target
granular clarity of what it’d take to get there
a measure of all the milestones one’d have to check off en-route
a measure of individual effort that’d be required
a clear estimation of the timelines
When it happens to be largely true, that of what remains post that goal-setting exercise is the detailed planning & execution which ought to be done to perfection if one is looking to achieving the goals in quick time, which then brings us to the subject of “drafting goals & doing it well”.
Writing goals - “the SMART way”:
Having a goal is half the game really! But, for that to happen one has to be able to draft those goals properly. I do suggest the SMART framework which also happens to be widely accepted in the world today over the subjecting of drafting goals, whether they are personal or professional.
It is very simple. You just start off by asking yourself these questions:
Being able to answer all these 10 questions would mean you’re ready with a real GOAL & you’re good to head over to the next phase which is all about building action plans to assist you in your quest.
Having used it over the years both over a personal and a professional / team level I see how this fits largely for someone who doesn’t have any other means of starting off with and could be totally blank or lost for direction.
But, when it comes to someone who has had a bit of an experience in working with teams dabbling with implementing these, there are a few places it certainly falls short. The SMART framework does a great job painting an absolute splendid picture on canvas akin to an artistic view of an upcoming posh building but there’s still a lot of it that could be subject to change directly bearing an influence over the learnings from the field.
Let’s take the instance of a goal that has been set in an org. by say the leadership. It’s circulated to all the internal stakeholders as relevant so as to get all teams in alignment. But, half way or may be 30% en route to their goal they muster an understanding that the metrics / parameters used to measure the goal won’t quite suffice as the market dynamics stand changed largely now as opposed to the time when they drafted these goals.
And, this is exactly where the dynamism of the SMARTLY framework could come to the rescue.
Writing goals “SMARTLY”:
Owing to how the dynamism of the field could influence the specificity, attainability & the measurability of a goal if not the goal itself, there ought to be 2 uncertainties that ought to be placed and parked aside so as to factor it in as the time is nigh over using the same SMART framework.
And those are:
the need for the LARGE goal to be split into SMALL chunks so as to build more tangibility & lead to exactness & a lot of clarity
the constant need to get into retros, cross-check whether the measurements thus proposed are enough and if not to recalibrate them so as to align back to the goal in sight
So, we arrive at these 2 additions to that SMART framework:
Conclusion:
Not that I am reading a few lines from the “Agile manifesto” out loud, but there ought to be absolutely no harm in adapting to / using frameworks by modifying them to suit you best over your daily workflow or your life, chop and change as necessary to handle the situation on hand. It’s only fair that you keep a sharp lookout and incorporate a few changes over a regular cadence over the way you function given how challenges you face also happen to change dynamically.