Use Smart Objectives to Focus Goals Plans and Performance
By Susan Berry and Randy Thomas, Ph.D.
What's so smart about SMART? Why has this acronym become part of the vocabulary of project planning and performance management?
Objectives that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Aligned,
Realistic/Relevant, and Time-bound) are likely to be achieved. When generic, off-the shelf objectives get the SMART treatment, they emerge as targets that engage focus, action, feedback and learning. These targets assist development of individual work plans, and also provide a guidance system for supervisor-staff performance review discussions.
How Do You Write a SMART Objective Statement?
First, you must decide exactly what you expect to create, and how you will recognise it when it comes to be. Now put it in words: "Our Internet Marketing system produces a minimum of $3500 per month in product sales by 31 July 2009, with a quarterly increase of at least 5% thereafter."
The Specific, Measurable, and Time-bound aspects are built into one short declaration.
Will it happen? Much depends on whether your objective is aligned with things that really matter to you (and your organisation), and whether you can commit the resources to bring it about. In individuals and in organisations, resource distribution often reflects past priorities and requirements. As you develop your SMART objective, step back and compare proposed results with existing commitments in the larger organisation or systems you serve. This broader perspective can help you decide if:
1. Your proposed result is consistent with and directly relevant to larger strategic goals and desired outcomes, and
2. Your proposed result has such great pay-off potential that it is worth the resource investment it requires.
Taking on a new initiative usually means that something else must go. If you discover that current investments are not producing the gains you had hoped for, you know where you can harvest resources for endeavours you believe will be more
What's so smart about SMART? Why has this acronym become part of the vocabulary of project planning and performance management?
Objectives that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Aligned,
Realistic/Relevant, and Time-bound) are likely to be achieved. When generic, off-the shelf objectives get the SMART treatment, they emerge as targets that engage focus, action, feedback and learning. These targets assist development of individual work plans, and also provide a guidance system for supervisor-staff performance review discussions.
How Do You Write a SMART Objective Statement?
First, you must decide exactly what you expect to create, and how you will recognise it when it comes to be. Now put it in words: "Our Internet Marketing system produces a minimum of $3500 per month in product sales by 31 July 2009, with a quarterly increase of at least 5% thereafter."
The Specific, Measurable, and Time-bound aspects are built into one short declaration.
Will it happen? Much depends on whether your objective is aligned with things that really matter to you (and your organisation), and whether you can commit the resources to bring it about. In individuals and in organisations, resource distribution often reflects past priorities and requirements. As you develop your SMART objective, step back and compare proposed results with existing commitments in the larger organisation or systems you serve. This broader perspective can help you decide if:
1. Your proposed result is consistent with and directly relevant to larger strategic goals and desired outcomes, and
2. Your proposed result has such great pay-off potential that it is worth the resource investment it requires.
Taking on a new initiative usually means that something else must go. If you discover that current investments are not producing the gains you had hoped for, you know where you can harvest resources for endeavours you believe will be more