Probably all of us have encountered a situation in our careers, where a ‘good plan’ has failed. Often, in such situations, a group of people involved in such a project, gets together and reflects on what needs to be improved to avoid a similar situation in the future. 

At the forefront of reasons for failing to achieve the objective, we will always find communication, or rather communication that is inappropriate, insufficient, wrong, mismatched, etc. 

Leaving aside the element of soft skills to keep in mind when talking about communication, it is worth considering the use of a widely known tool, that has been designed for effective goal communication, namely SMART. 

Let me start by elaborating on the acronym, which has several versions at least as far as the letters A and R are concerned. The acronym SMART defines how a goal should be structured, what elements it should contain. So one by one, a goal should be:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – With this letter I want to stop for a moment. The most common development of this letter is Achievable. I advocate another development: Ambitious or Attractive. In my understanding, Achievable and Realistic (the next letter) are strongly related. If a goal is achievable for the person who undertakes it, then it is also a realistic goal. By adding a developmental element to a goal, we certainly make it more attractive. 

R – here you can find an expansion as Realistic or Relevant. I translate this letter as Realistic. I replace the version of the translation as Relevant, with the previous letter in this case: Ambitious and Attractive. 

T – Time-bound

Before I move on to examples of how SMART is applied in everyday work, I will briefly describe each element, from the point of view of its role, and the consequences associated with its omission when defining a goal.

Specific

In any situation where we talk about a goal, the first thing we think about is, what the essence of the goal is. And these are the words that follow “My goal is…” or “Your goal is…”. Everything we read or hear after these words should describe the objective/task in a clear, unambiguous way, understood in the same way by both parties – the Leader and the Team Member.

Measurable

When formulating an objective, the Leader has some idea of what they want to receive when the task is completed. The key is to translate this idea into measurable, i.e. physical parameters, such as quantity, size, form, color, file format, table content, number of pages, compliance with a standard, etc.-the possibilities are endless. It is important that both parties, the Leader and the Team Member, measure the end result in the same way.

Ambitious / Attractive

Ambitiousness and Attractiveness relate to the Team Member’s perspective, not the Leader’s. It is for the person pursuing the objective that the task should be so. Above all, attractive. Ambitious should be for those people who expect it. Both criteria require, that both parties know each other’s expectations and motivations. I make no secret of the fact, that fulfilling this criterion is the most difficult. There is a group of tasks that need to be done and they are not challenging or attractive. However, you can think about the addressee of the task. Sometimes the same task assigned to another person can acquire the attributes of being ambitious and/or attractive.

Realistic

The person commissioning the objective needs to be sure that the Team Member undertaking it has all the resources needed to do so. The most important thing to take care of – is the competence, time and physical tools he will need. The lack of competence for some tasks can be seen as the part that may be attractive to the Team Member – a situation that only applies to Team Members who are ready for such a challenge and agree to it. In this case, both parties must be fully aware of this, as the risk of failure increases significantly. As far as time and the necessary tools are concerned, their absence should be taken as an indication, that the goal is unrealistic and will not be realized. 

Time-bound

I once heard that ‘a task once postponed, later postpones itself’. In order to avoid such situations, every task must have a specific completion time. For simple, short tasks, an end date is what needs to be set. It is worth recalling a rule of thumb at this point. 

Imagine, the end date has been defined as the second week of March. The Leader is most likely thinking of the beginning of that week, the Team Member of the last week day’s. A similar situation where the deadline for acceptance of the task has been defined as Thursday, March 14th. The Leader most likely wants to receive the task in the morning and the Team Member to present the result at the end of the day. In the case of short deadlines, it is worth bearing this in mind and setting it precisely. This will help avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and tensions. 

If the task is long and/or complex, it is worth considering a periodic review, so as to verify on an ongoing basis, that the implementation is as agreed. If it is not, revisit the definition of each SMART stage and modify it, to give the Team Member a chance of final success and the Leader a chance of getting what he expect.

I often come across the opinion that because of the structure, the need to define each step, SMART can only be used for long and important tasks. I absolutely disagree with this. I believe that anyone and everywhere can and should use this method. One condition: it takes some practice. Here are two examples to inspire your first steps with SMART.

When I first started out, I would often write out goals (in this case, the longer and more difficult ones, such as semester or annual objectives) with a breakdown for each letter separately. For these goals, I still do this. Both, when it comes to my goals and those of my team.

Example of target definition:

S: All NPI projects will be run according to defined quality, cost and schedule (QCD) targets.

M: Each project will be evaluated according to an agreed KPI structure

A: If needed, I have the option to create an additional KPI to verify an area, that I believe should be overseen

R: Projects are implemented according to an approved roadmap taking into account available resources

T: KPIs are updated on Friday (by the end of the day) of the second week, every month.

Let’s move on to the tasks and targets, that we commission on a daily basis. Here we also go through the whole SMART procedure, but the formalization of the target is often simplified. The example below assumes, that the Leader and the Team Member have been working together for a long time and know each other’s competences and expectations. This is a short scene, based on real conversations. „L” stands for Leader, TM” for Team Member. I have highlighted each of the SMART elements in colors:

Specific

Measurable

Attractive

Realistic

Time-bound

L: I want you to do a prototype feasibility study for a concept, that came out of the TRIZ meeting last week.

TM: Which one? There were several…

L: We called it ‘Magic Lever’ – I’ll send you a link to the presentation, there’s a description of the idea on one of the slides. You’ve done similar analyses in the past, project XYZ do the same. 

TM: For when?

L: Thursday for the weekly meeting?

TM: I may not be able to make it, but I will bring as much as I have.

L: I mainly want a proposal for process steps, broken down into those we can do ourselves and those, we need to outsource. A detailed description and drawings can be done later. Will you have time?

TM: Yes, I will prepare the process steps and some first sketches. 

It is worth noting that the process of defining the goal is the result of a conversation. Each of the SMART steps was clarified by both parties and the conversation lasted a mere 2-3 minutes. „A” did not occur in this example. It could be added relatively easily by outsourcing this analysis to someone, who has never done it before. In that case, the conversation would be much longer and would require additional information to be provided to the Team Member. Perhaps it would be the Team Member who would offer, for example, to present the results of the analysis in a new and different way, that he has seen somewhere and would like to try out on this example. 

You might ask yourself: who should care more about using SMART, the Team Member or the Leader? If the first answer that comes to your mind is: The Leader, then it is worth stopping for a moment and thinking about what using SMART gives you:

• The Leader receives at the end of the assignment exactly what he has specified.
• The Team Member is able to work efficiently to deliver a clearly defined objective.
• The outsourced tasks have a very high probability of completion because both parties verify the available resources at the order stage.
• By specifying exactly how and what will be measured, we avoid misunderstandings and emotional meetings, where both parties are dissatisfied and their relationship is getting worse.
• A similar effect is achieved by setting a precise deadline for implementation, that does not „surprise” anyone. 
• By keeping in mind the element of attractiveness, we give ourselves a chance (as Team Members) to work on tasks, that interest us and give us a chance for personal development. As Leaders, we make ourselves known as people for whom the development of others is also our goal, which we pursue at every opportunity. 

If you look at the benefits in this way, both the Leader and the Team Member are beneficiaries of the process. This is why I use SMART with both my supervisors and employees, which I hope reading this article, has encouraged you as well.