Why goals should be FAST, not SMART
A new year brings new opportunities, and that means setting goals for personal and professional success. From executing strategy to tracking performance, conventional wisdom tells us to "work smarter." Chances are that you or someone you work with embarked on SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
In principle, SMART goals make sense. They seem well-suited to help us deliver steadier results. But what if they're actually setting limits on our purpose and potential?
According to?researchers?at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, SMART goals undervalue ambition, focus too narrowly on individual performance, and ignore the importance of discussing goals throughout the year. In other words, they're not as smart as they look.
For better outcomes, focus on goals that are FAST – frequently designed, ambitious, specific, and transparent. There's a bit of overlap between goals that are SMART and FAST, but also some important distinctions.
1. Frequently designed
The constant in work today is change: A sudden pivot in a project. High rates of employee churn. New market conditions or client requests. Each of these situations require mid-course alignments. Those SMART goals you set three months ago may not make much sense anymore.
The best hedge against unpredictability is nimble adaptation. Changing the dial doesn't mean abandoning goals in principle, just adjusting them in practice. Several?high-profile companies, including Microsoft, IBM, and Accenture, have recently transformed their performance management process to incorporate ongoing discussions around goal setting, which keeps business objectives and KPIs top of mind throughout the year.?
2. Ambitious
Playing it safe or small may may feel good, but it rarely does any good. Real progress comes from pushing past our comfort and setting goals that lie just beyond our current level of readiness.
Asking people to stretch may require leaders to seriously reconsider how rewards are tied to work. A?40-year study?on motivation found that intrinsic motivation – defined by a genuine sense of purpose and challenge – was nearly six times more effective than external incentives in motivating people to complete complex and creative tasks. People may be more willing to take risks in their work when they don’t?fear repercussions in their jobs.?
3. Specific?
Translating goals into action requires clarity and coherence. When we adopt specific metrics or milestones to track progress, it's easier to know where we're aiming and whether we're pointing in the right direction.
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Being specific means doing less, not more.?A?meta-analysis?of 83 interventions in organizations – including the U.S. Air Force, high-tech manufacturing plants, and hospitals –found that setting only a handful of objectives, assigning simple metrics to each goal, and providing regular feedback moved an average team to the 88th percentile of performance.?Shrinking our goals helps us think through the steps of how to achieve them without becoming overwhelmed.
4. Transparent
Sharing goals with others can seem unnatural, but it may be the most effective way to create accountability. Telling others what you hope to achieve has the effect of turning aspiration into action. It may also lead to unexpected collaborations or support networks that accelerate progress.
Within teams, greater visibility can also contribute to collective success. Making the goals of each unit more transparent helps shape a?broader understanding of your organization's strategy and values, and may even allow for an exchange of knowledge and expertise between individual contributors whose goals align.
As you set the agenda for the new year, remember: Just because a goal is SMART doesn't mean it's sustainable. When our goals are FAST, we can go far.
Keep fixing,
Joe
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Dr. Joe Hirsch helps organizations design and deliver feedback without fear. Joe is a?TEDx?and?global keynote speaker, the author of "The Feedback Fix," and has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Inc. and other major outlets. He also hosts the popular podcast,?I Wish They Knew.