A K.I.S.S. Enhances S.M.A.R.T. and WIIFM: Keep It Simple to Engage Employees and Achieve Goals

Are you simplifying the process for your employees to achieve their goals?? Do you sufficiently understand the various aspects of a goal…so that you can present it concisely and inspirationally??

To answer these questions, many organizational leaders use S.M.A.R.T goals and WIIFM to support actions that lead to goal achievement.?

Crafting goals using a S.M.A.R.T framework is a great start – there is plenty of information available on setting goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, results-driven, and timely.? But in practice, crafting goals using the S.M.A.R.T. framework is insufficient.?

Because S.M.A.R.T. goals specifically focus on the desired outcome or result, they lack the inclusion of a detailed action plan on the steps required to achieve them.? This efficient, effective execution of necessary action steps to achieve those goals will only occur if each individual employee understands his or her role along the journey.?

Effective action steps should not just focus on what needs to be done, but also why these steps are necessary to achieve the desired outcome.? This “why” embraces more than the organizational reasons for setting the goal in the first place:? to be effective, it also addresses the importance of this goal to the people who are responsible for executing each step.?

In other words, every S.M.A.R.T. goal should address every employee’s WIIFM (or “what’s in it for me”). Experience has shown that effective leaders consciously assist their employees in answering this critical and highly personal question to help motivate them toward achieving their goals.?

Is S.M.A.R.T. plus WIIFM the “Secret Sauce” in Goal Achievement?

To follow the logic of this coupling of S.M.A.R.T. goals with WIIFM, it appears that we’ve found the “secret sauce” to be adept at goal setting and goal getting.?

However, the sad reality is that many organizations fall short in attaining their goals.? There are a variety of reasons why the most well-developed goals during the planning phase tend to fail during the execution and implementation phase:?

·???????? The goals are not aligned with organizational strategy, values, or purpose.?

·???????? The goals insufficiently address the constraints of resources within the organization (including human, financial, or technological).?

·???????? ALL of the goals are prioritized as “URGENT!” While urgency used sparingly and discriminately can motivate employees, such manufactured urgency fails in the long run:? when everything is urgent, confusion reigns as to what is critical, what is “nice to have,” and what is (quite frankly) irrelevant.?

·???????? The goals are set and then forgotten by not including them in the control and measurement of overall daily operations.?

So if S.M.A.R.T. goals plus WIIFM isn’t the “magic bullet” for goal setting and goal getting, what else can be added to ensure that what is planned actually gets done??

This has been a challenge for managers throughout history, culminating in the continuous search for better, “new and improved” methods of planning and execution.? (OKRs, KPIs, and BHAGs come to mind).? But after intensive training on these new processes (often with little post-training reinforcement), many organizations find that they still aren’t achieving the goals that they’ve set.?

Who’s to Blame When Goals Aren’t Met??

When something doesn’t work, the first step is to conduct an after action report to understand what went wrong, what caused the error, and how to correct these mistakes.?

In practice, I’ve found that many organizational leaders after desperately searching for errors in their goal setting methodology focus on what is going wrong in their goal getting.? Their focus on what and why is replaced with who:? who is to blame when the planned goals were not transformed into reality??

The logic is that if we’re using the so-called “best” or most “cutting edge” methods to set goals, it must be that the employees in charge of achieving them aren’t sufficiently motivated or engaged in the process.?

I believe that this is a faulty and dangerous assumption.?

The harsh reality is that not every employee will perform as an “A” player:? those innovative go-getters with a solid record of success and achievement.? The common mistake is to believe that it is only the “A” players who enable an organization to succeed.?

Not all employees will be “A” players – nor should that be the goal of an organization.?

Those “B” players who fill the often tedious but necessary “routine” roles within the organization are just as critical as the “A” players.? Their work style is less flashy than “A” players.? Their roles are often considered to be somewhat mundane with little responsibility for organizational goals or direction; they’re the types of jobs that typically bore the “A” players.

But such an alphabetical categorization and comparison of employees is frequently based on erroneous assumptions.? Assumptions about differences in the level of expected performance.? Assumptions about the degree of intrinsic motivation.? And even assumptions about the context in which they are working.?

The danger lies in how these assumptions influence a manager’s expectations of individual workers.? Whether an employee is designated as an “A” or “B” player, ALL employees are capable of flashes of brilliance in the way in which they carry out their roles.?

In terms of goal achievement, success requires the concerted effort of both the “A” players and the “B” players:? the flashiness of the “A’s” and the diligent persistence of the “B’s.”?

Can There Be Too Much Detail in Goal Communication??

True confession:? I love detail.? I like outlining every step of a process and checking the box when each is completed.? But this can lead to a convoluted laundry list of priorities, benchmarks, and flow charts.?

Second true confession:? I also know that too much detail during the planning process can also lead to procrastination and inaction.?

As I previously mentioned, when everything is “URGENT!”…nothing is urgent and the inherent power of priorities is greatly diminished.? When there is no clear, concise course provided to get from where we are now to where we want to be, our ability to strategically pivot is compromised – especially when the plan’s assumptions do not coincide with reality.?

Better time management is not the answer.? Even if you can beautifully budget your time and resources to ensure the timely completion of your part of the project, you’ll become frustrated when your plans are torpedoed by others (often through no fault of their own) who are unable to deliver their preceding task on your timeline.?

The result?? A cascade of missed deadlines, extensive overtime to “catch up,” frustration, anger, apathy, and burnout.?

So the problem for leaders lies in the difficulty in communicating well-conceived goals in a way that is concise but also contains sufficient detail to easily guide employees’ work on their parts of the project.?

Employees should not be required to read dozens (if not hundreds) of pages regarding this year’s strategic goals in order to understand what they need to do.? This can be demoralizing and ineffective.? Charts and other visual tools can alleviate this problem by creating a shortcut to visualizing not only what needs to be done but also the interplay of responsibilities across functional areas that will lead to successful attainment of the over-arching goal.?

But again these graphic representations of the goal need to be concise and clear:? they should not be dense with information, detailed legends, descriptions, notes, and even require mandatory training to understand them.?

In other words, brevity.? Simplicity.? Focus.?

Simply stated (no pun intended):? how you present goals to the workforce is equally as important as what you present.? Are your goals presented in a way that inspires and energizes employees to expend their energy toward achieving them?? (WIIFM)? Are the necessary tasks succinctly described so that they know what to do and when it is due?? (S.M.A.R.T.)?

Goals in and of themselves will not catapult your organization to the next level of growth and prosperity.? Without dedicated employees who are engaged and committed to achieving them, the goals will continue to be aspirations rather than a new reality.?

Keep It Simple to Motivate Employees to Achieve Goals

By all means, use the S.M.A.R.T. framework to define your goals.? Promote employee buy-in by conscientiously addressing their WIIFM.? But keep it simple:?

Sophisticated business goals are best created and executed through simplicity.

The K.I.S.S. formula (i.e., “Keep it simple, stupid”) may be simple…but, in practice, it isn’t easy. It isn’t easy to reduce large amounts of planning and detail into something short, concise, and inspirational.? As Henry David Thoreau said:? “Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.”

And therein lies the challenge of implementing K.I.S.S. into goal setting and goal getting.?

K.I.S.S. challenges the prevailing belief that “business” requires incredible levels of detail supplemented with corroborating arguments and intricate partnership relationships.? The logic is that if it’s “too simplistic,” then it might not be sufficiently vetted to reduce potential risk to the organization.? The result:? greater levels of bureaucracy, increased direct and dotted line relationships, greater separation between leaders and employees, and a workflow that is anything but “simple.”?

In contrast, I urge you to consider this premise:? there is a unique sophistication in that which is simple and unconvoluted.?

K.I.S.S. in goal communication requires an insightful understanding of the connotative meanings in words.? Communicating organizational goals simply but inspirationally means choosing words and phrases that are rich with connotative meaning.? Focusing on the motivational qualities inherent in the secondary or associative meaning of a word or phrase that extends beyond its primary meaning.?

Strongly connotative words affect employees emotionally and reinforce organizational culture in the attainment of desired goals:? a desired state rather than a new data point on a chart.?

In other words, connotative communication of goals creates a storyline in which employees can see themselves.? By answering their WIIFM, they can commit wholeheartedly to their role in achieving a great or noble result.?

This requires powerful communication of ideas, visions, and goals.? Gantt charts and spreadsheets have their place…but they lack the ability to emotionally inspire and motivate workers to achieve their goals.?

And that’s the secret sauce in goal setting and goal getting:? emotional involvement that infuses logic and rational thought with the tenacity to persevere through the inevitable obstacles on the way to goal achievement.? It is an emotional state that should be inspired in all employees – whether they are “A” or “B” players.?

S.M.A.R.T., WIIFM, and K.I.S.S.? Together they help to simplify your goals by creating greater clarity, less confusion, and tenacious action leading to the desired result:?

·???????? Important details are clearly communicated to help employees clarify and streamline their goal-related work processes.? (S.M.A.R.T.)

·???????? Employees see the goal’s “big picture” AND the importance of their role in advancing toward it.? (WIIFM)

·???????? Human resources are comprised of human beings who require an emotional connection to infuse their work with their experience, commitment, and tenacity.? (K.I.S.S.)

Complication and intricacy are not necessarily signs of astute planning or business acumen.? Eschew the complicated for the simple!? As Leonardo DaVinci so sagely advised: ?“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”? You might just be able to create and achieve a business masterpiece of your own.?

? 2024 Dr. Geri Puleo????????????