Technique: Setting SMART Goals

People need to know where they’re headed to make the daily and weekly decisions about their work without having to come to you. When they don’t have goals, each person chooses his or her own priorities. They may not be your priorities, and they may not mesh with co-workers’ priorities or organizational priorities. People make choices based on what they like to do, what’s easiest, what’s most challenging, what helps their friends the most, and all kinds of reasons—reasons that don’t necessarily match the company’s needs.

Guidelines

For setting group goals, consider using a technique called affinity grouping.

1. Frame the question. Here are possibilities:

   • What problems did we encounter in the last project?

   • What problems have we encountered over the last few months?

   • Where do we want to be in six months?

   • How do we accomplish this goal of increasing revenue in the next six months?

2. Write down one answer or idea per sticky.

3. Post the stickies on a wall, and group them by common theme.

4. Label each grouping.

5. As a group, develop actions that will help you achieve the goals stated in each theme.

Set individual goals in a one-on-one. Individual goals are complementary to the group goals and are tied to the group’s mission. In addition, individual goals address each person’s specific issues and may include career development goals.

Individual and team goals support the mission of the group—the reason the department exists.

Make goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Here’s an example of a goal that isn’t SMART: “Improve product quality.” Here’s a SMART version of that goal: “Decrease the total number of released defects in the next release by 10%.”