Elbert Hubbard, a 19th-century philosopher, concisely captured the essence of goal achievement with his timeless quote: ‘Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.’ This philosophy emphasises the significance of goals in providing clarity of direction and determining where you go, whether in personal endeavours or business pursuits.

While Hubbard’s wisdom has stood the test of time, it wasn’t until 1981, when George T. Doran published his paper “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives” in Management Review Vol. 70, Issue 11, that a structured approach for crafting meaningful objectives or statements of results to be achieved emerged. Doran’s intention was to provide clear guidance on creating objectives that are:

• Specific: target a specific area for improvement.
• Measurable: quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
• Assignable: specify who will do it.
• Realistic: state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
• Time-related: specify when the result(s) can be achieved.

Over time, the concept evolved, with ‘Assignable’ shifting to “Achievable”, “Realistic” to “Relevant”, and ‘Time-related’ to ‘Time-bound’, reflecting the dynamic nature of goal-setting practices. In her 2014 book, “Practical Performance Measurement: Using the PuMP Blueprint for Fast, Easy, and Engaging KPIs”, Stacey Barr presents a fresh interpretation of “Measurable” and offers insightful perspectives on the essence of “Specific”, enriching our understanding of the S.M.A.R.T. attributes of a goal.

“What “Measurable” really means.

If a goal or objective is measurable, it means that we’re able to easily find a way to measure it. We’re able to measure a goal when we:

• understand what specific subject the goal is about
• can visualise or imagine what will be (and hopefully stay) different when the goal is reached
• can agree on what exactly we’d see more or less of when the goal is reached

Being “measurable” is about writing a goal using grammar and language to express a desired state we want to achieve for some specific performance attribute. It is not about quantifying or suggesting an indicator. An indicator or measure is evidence of a goal, and to be sure the evidence is useful, the goal needs to be clearly articulated first. Note that a goal is a desired state we want to achieve for a specific performance attribute (specific area for improvement). It is a desired result or outcome.

Consider these examples of S.M.A.R.T. goals. Do they express a desired state to be achieved for some specific performance attribute?

• Increase Website Traffic by 25% by December 2024
• Reduce operating costs by 10% by October 2024
• Work out at least 3x per week
• Write or update two knowledgebase articles every week

The first two goals need to be rewritten specifically and measurably, while the last two are focused on doing stuff. However, if we apply Stacey Barr’s “Recipe for Writing a Measurable Goal” to these goals, they would read as follows:

• Website visits are high.
• Costs for operations are low.
• My physical health is good.
• Information about our products (or services) is easy to get or use.

You will notice that for each of these goals, there is a subject (specific area to improve) and the desired state for that subject (what will be different, and we’d see more or less of when the goal is reached).

Now that we have specific and measurable goals, what’s next?

We humans love to receive feedback and get immensely motivated by tangible signs of advancement. Hence, measurement is critical. By measuring our results, we get invaluable insights into whether we are making progress towards strategy.

To find meaningful measures for our result, we must be deliberate in describing very clearly the following:

• The evidence of that result.
• The potential measures that will quantify that evidence.

In addition, we must set both interim and stretch targets (performance levels) for our measures.

But what about the ART?

“Achievable” and “Relevant” are still important when setting goals. Rather than being attributes, they are the criteria for selecting what matters most to measure, i.e. the most important goals. We should, therefore, ask ourselves the following questions when selecting the most important goals to pursue:

• “Achievable: should, can and will improve this goal?
• “Relevant”: does this goal align with the rest of the strategy?

“Time-bound” is applicable to targets for the measures for our goals. They are the performance levels we aim to reach for our measures.

Would you like to learn more about writing specific and measurable goals and designing meaningful measures for your goals?

Join us in one of our upcoming PuMP Performance Measure Workshops. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn how to achieve your goals consistently!