George Doran, Arthur Miller, and James Cunningham developed SMART goals in their 1981 article “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management goals and objectives.” They defined them as Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely (SMART). Doran stated, “Managers are confused by all the verbiage from seminars, books, magazines, consultants, and so on. Let me suggest, therefore, that when it comes to writing effective objectives, corporate officers, managers, and supervisors just have to think of the acronym SMART.” The acronym has morphed over the years and has taken on many forms, but the underlying message remained the same…it is a thoughtful and purposeful way to manage goals and objectives. SMART goals are not new to the workplace and many of you may even use them frequently within your organizations or teams. Equally important is the way we can apply them in our everyday lives. We all have our personal goals, but we don’t seem to apply the same rigour in our daily lives. As a result, they remain vague and undefined. The most popular SMART forms in use currently are specific, measurable/meaningful, achievable, relevant/realistic, and timely/time-bound. The question then becomes can we make SMART goals SMARTER? The answer is YES!
Everything in the world is changing constantly. Everything influences everything else in both known and unknown ways, and everything in it reacts in both known and unknown ways. Understanding these concepts is referred to as systems thinking. What is critical to understanding systems is that everything and everyone entering or leaving a system influences it in both known and unknown ways. That is why we need to be
SMART-E.R!
“E” – Evaluate
It is important to evaluate your goals. Has the situation changed? Then, yes…re-evaluate. Are you assuming the situation has NOT changed…take the time to be sure. Do not pay lip service to the process…after all, this is a process…your process that exists to ENABLE AND EMPOWER YOU. Look at what is working and what is not working? Reflect on it to understand WHY. Do you need to adjust your goals? Can you make changes to mitigate the risks or impacts? Were your goals transparent to others and were you accountable? This then begs the question, were you ETHICAL in your goal setting? Could “E” also mean did you develop your goals ethically? Does this link to transparency and accountability?
“R” – Revise or Readjust
Can you revise your goals? The answer to this question links back to evaluating and reflecting. Can you or should you? Look back to systems thinking to understand if you should revise your goal(s), but also understand any changes you make may have other systems impacts. People tend to be linear in their goal development, develop their goals in isolation, and do not honour the time needed to reflect adequately to ensure they have truly made a S.M.A.R.T.E.R. choice.
An adage related to SMART goal development is don’t work harder but work smarter. In this case, work S.M.A.R.T.E.R.
