Using "SMART" Goals for setting objectives in your Strategic Plan.

Using “SMART Goals” for Setting Objectives in Your Strategic Plan.

The one fulfilling attribute of being a business consultant is getting to work with a variety of non-profits and businesses throughout the world that are very unique and passionate about their cause. Recently, I had the pleasure of talking to a non-profit group from New York who are just embarking on creating a strategic plan for their organization. As a strategic planning advisor, I was attempting to guide them and let them know how important the objective setting process will be to their strategic plan.

In the strategic consulting business, I see many organizations create strategic plans that are dynamic and are extremely successful. In the transition phase, they are able to execute their objectives with ease and normally have a high success rate in accomplishing their strategic planning objectives. On the other hand, I have also seen organizations struggle with their strategic plans and in some cases, these plans even sit on the shelf collecting dust. This can be for many reasons, but the one major fallacy I see is the lack of setting good clear objectives that are aligned with an organizations mission, vision and values.

In the strategic planning world, there is process called "SMART Goals" that is used quite regularly by strategic planning facilitators for setting objectives. SMART is the acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timeline. Let’s take a brief look at how we can use each one of these valuable guides to set dynamic goals for your business.

1. Specific - Is your strategic planning objective specific enough? Is it too broad, or general in nature. Specific goals are key in shaping a strong objective.

2. Measurable - Is your objective measurable? Do you have a KPI strategy for measuring and tracking success on an ongoing basis until the objective is made?

3. Attainable - Many businesses set unrealistic goals with no hope of attaining their desired outcome. Make sure your organization is setting itself up for success with realistic and attainable objectives. Strategically, it’s way better to have a handful of goals that are achievable, than several that are not. Factors like a lack of resouces, time and money could cause issues.

4. Relevant - Is your objective worth putting resources into accomplishing the goal for the long-term plan? Does it align to your mission and vision?

5. Timeline - Make sure you have a written target date in your strategic plan for completion of the objective. This will help your organization move towards fulfilling the respective objective on time and on budget.

I’m also a big believer in creating processes, (or a mini business plan) within the strategic plan to make sure every objective has the highest probability of success. Processes don’t need to be complicated, but in order to accomplish a goal you need to have a written plan (one pager is fine) as to how your team will get to point A to point B. So, my add on to SMART goals, is adding P - for forming a process for each goal.

Setting objectives in your Strategic Plan should be the most exciting phase in your plan as you are at the point of mapping out your future. By using SMART Goals during the facilitation process you will be ensuring that your strategic planning objectives are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and have a Timeline attached to them for optimum success. Creating processes to accomplish your goals will also give you a higher probability of succeeding. This is where a strategic planning advisor can often be advantageous in helping guide and navigate you form your objectives, and ultimately, help make your dreams for the future come true.