Last year, the human resources department at Illinois State University sent representatives to the library to train supervisors in new management policies and procedures. During a session about employee performance evaluations, a five-letter mnemonic called SMART was introduced very successfully:
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 results can be achieved.
The SMART criteria, commonly attributed to Peter Drucker and his management by objectives concept, is usually used to guide goal-setting, particularly related to project management, employee performance and personal development.
“The SMART criteria are simple, logical and easy to remember,” said Ross Griffiths, director of preservation and university archives at the Milner Library at Illinois State University in Normal, Ill. Onsite the day SMART was implemented into the workflow, he said it not only changed the way people work together, it created a much more effective dialogue between departments.
“They provide a set of steps that help to evaluate and articulate a goal and to develop a plan of action, and they ensure that expectations are articulated in clear terms that everybody understands,” said Griffiths. “We all communicate somewhat differently in the workplace and it’s easy to omit critical details or to leave a conversation with misunderstandings. SMART keeps conversations grounded by focusing on the concrete.”
The SMART criteria helped improve communication between the departments at Illinois State University, which, according to Griffiths, might as well have been speaking different languages.
SMART Clarifies Communication
While Griffiths might be invested in a scholarly approach to the criteria, he also uses SMART to gauge his own professional development, as well as the development among members of his team. The new approach has effectively linked facets of the workplace that may have been previously disconnected — from communications and research to IT.
“I use the SMART criteria like a set of filters through which I push various ideas or plans,” he said. “Each level of SMART helps me create a set of concrete information that informs how — and whether — to proceed with a particular goal.”
For example, when he encounters a need or a problem to solve, SMART helps systematically narrow down a particular outcome, establish a method of accountability and figure out the time, personnel and material resources needed to accomplish it.
“This process helps me quickly and easily place any projected activity within the context of my department’s overall goals and resources,” said Griffiths. “SMART provides me with an intellectual roadmap for planning projects, which simplifies the process and speeds it along. I don’t spend as much time puzzling over which questions to ask when developing a plan or how I should articulate a goal to my supervisor.”
SMART also provides a common framework for institution-wide project planning. Employees who implement the criteria now speak a common language when they collaborate. That commonality, in Griffiths’ experience, it makes it easier for researchers to communicate with IT specialists, and for IT specialists to communicate with students and faculty.
The SMART Process
In his book Attitude is Everything, the late Paul J. Meyer takes a deeper look at the characteristics of SMART goals. “Intangible goals are your goals for the internal changes required to reach more tangible goals,” he explained in his work. “They are the personality characteristics and the behavior patterns you must develop to pave the way to success in your career or for reaching some other long-term goal. Since intangible goals are vital for improving your effectiveness, give close attention to tangible ways for measuring them.”
Here are some important ways that Meyer breaks down SMART to make the criteria effective for goal setting and achievement:
The S in SMART stands for Specific. Set specific rather than general goals. A specific goal tells your team exactly what’s expected, why it’s important and who is involved.
The M in SMART stands for Measurable. Establish concrete criteria to measure the progress of each goal. “When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal,” Meyer said. To determine if a goal is measurable, ask questions like “How much?” “How many?” and “How will I know when it’s accomplished?”
The A in SMART stands for Attainable. When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them materialize. “You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills and financial capacity to reach them,” he said. “You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.”
You can attain most any goal you set when you plan wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. “When you list your goals, you build your self-image,” he said. “You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.”
The R in SMART stands for Realistic. To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. “A goal can be both high and realistic,” said Meyer. “You are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress. A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love.”
The T in SMART stands for Tangible. A goal is tangible when you can experience it with one of the senses: taste, touch, smell, sight or hearing. “When your goal is tangible,” he said, “or when you tie an intangible goal to a tangible goal, you have a better chance of making it specific and measurable and, thus, attainable.”
You May Already Be Using the Criteria
Griffiths said SMART works, though he was skeptical in the beginning. “SMART seemed reductive at first,” he said. “I’m skeptical about any system that applies a simple approach to managing complex problems, and the SMART criteria seem rather obvious and fairly narrow. In fact, I bet most experienced HR professionals or project managers already use these in their daily work.”
For people without primary expertise in employee supervision or strategic planning, SMART provides a simple, systematic, effective approach.
“It’s like a checklist for effective decision-making,” he said. “I’d be interested in seeing whether SMART is scalable to very large corporate or institutional multiyear planning projects in which the scope or goals, personnel and resource availability will change over time.”
Natalie Hope McDonald is a writer and editor based in Philadelphia.
