S.M.A.R.T Goals

What are SMART goals ?

After explaining in detail  the differences between craftsmanship of yester years and modern management using real-life examples, Professor Mandi's yet another session on 'Principles of Organization and Management' begins with how goals of an organization (or any individual for that matter) must be set.

Dr. Mandi elaborated on the concept of organizational goals in terms of : 

Goal

A goal is a statement of a desired future an organization wishes to achieve. It describes what the organization is trying accomplish.

First of all, why set goals? 

• Goals provide a clear idea of what we are trying to  achieve. 
• We are able to plan what we need to do to achieve these goals through
   people, time and resources etc; 
• Goals allow us to measure our progress.

“Goal setting is one of the basic tools used by organizations to assist in setting a direction and achieving it. Successful organizations often set long- and short-term goals for service development, improving quality, reducing errors, becoming more customer-focused, and building better internal and public relations.” says Jeffery Davis, the author of the book - Managing and Achieving Organizational Goals

Apart from this, individuals may set goals to achieve a personal objective such as career advancement.

So, how do we set goals?

The S.M.A.R.T. method is one way to help you remember how to walk through the process of setting your goals.

SMART is an acronym where the letters stand for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time bound respectively.

    

Continuing with the discussion, Professor Mandi went on to say that each aspect of SMART goals as in the above table must be in consonance or in agreement with each other.

Then, Professor taught us the strategy to be used while setting goals.The strategy was well defined in terms of clarity as it included performance measures :

1. Goal set
2. Goal achieved
3. Goal achieved in history
4. Potential
5. Realistic goal set
6. Realistic goal achieved
7. Performance

To help us understand better, the classical example of tower building was used.

This time, a group of students were asked to work like they own a construction company and build a tower (made of small identical cubes) as high as possible.

As goal achieved in history for a tower building exercise was 27, the professor advised that we set our new goals using some methodolgy like :

Goal set = Goal achieved in history  + x %  ( Goal achieved in history )

Where 'x' is a subjective figure. 

The students made use of the strategy discussed above to set their goals, before actually getting started with building the tower.

A series of trials were through and finally the students who were assumed to own an organization that builds towers, were succesful in building a tower that was 28 cubes tall.

In this way, the students were enlightened on the purpose of organizational goals, the 'smart' way of defining goals and the strategy to be used in setting goals.

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