SMART Goals are outdated, try FAST Goals!

SMART Goals are so outdated!

SMART is an acronym that most of us will recognise. It’s been around for years but is it still relevant in today’s ever changing fast-paced world of work?

SMART goal setting is conventionally done once a year and is becoming outdated because:

1. They’re not as efficient in turning strategy into results.
2. They generally don’t encourage change and are usually aligned to improving the status quo rather than innovating.
3. They almost always end up being small, predictable and easily 'attainable’

 

It’s rare that SMART goals ever spark the imagination or fire us up to succeed. So what’s the alternative?

Many employers who have seen the light are now implementing FAST goals within their organisations, believing them to be far more relevant.

FAST goals are far more dynamic than SMART goals because it’s one of the few goal-setting techniques that can be flexible and agile as circumstances change.

FAST goals contain 4 key elements:

• Frequently discussed: Goals should be Frequently discussed to enable flexibility due to changes.
• Ambitious: Goals should be Ambitious, so that we can always improve performance.
• Specific: Goals should be Specific and can be measured, so that we can identify what is working and what is not.
• Transparent: Goals should be Transparent for everyone involved, so that we can remove activities that are unaligned with our goals.

Let’s take each of these elements in turn.

Frequently Discussed

FAST Goals must be frequently discussed but why?

• To keep focus and maintain these goals top of mind, focussing on what matters.
• To keep track of progress.
• To get feedback on potential improvement opportunities.
• To shed light on whether resources need to be reallocated and if prioritisations of initiatives are still right.
• To give guidance to key decisions needed to reach the goal.

So, what questions can you ask yourselves to help in your goal setting and to make sure you’re always aligned and on track to reach your goals?

• Are we on track to reach our goal?
• Are there any unforeseen changes that requires us to make some corrections?
• What can we do to improve further?

Ambitious

FAST Goals must be ambitious but why?

• To make you try harder. They’re more difficult but still possible to achieve.
• To challenge the status quo and push performance.
• To prevent setting goals so low they are too easy to achieve and purely “sandbagging.”
• To force you to go beyond current practices, stretch more, push more.
• To forces you to think more creatively to attain the goals.

However, one word of caution. It’s absolutely necessary to move beyond safe easily attainable goals to ones which will really make a difference in performance. But if they are too stretching for someone, this can actually be counterproductive.

There is a strong relationship between pressure and performance so when you set goals, find a balance so that best performance can be achieved. Too much pressure and performance declines, too little pressure (like SMART goals) and performance declines also – there is a sweet spot. You need to know your people well enough to know what that sweet spot is or adjust as you go along.

So, what questions can you ask yourselves to challenge, motivate and ensure you’re always doing your best?

• What ‘even more’ do I want to achieve?
• How do I exceed my own expectation?
• Is this the best I can do? Or can I do something greater?

Specific

FAST Goals must be asbolutely specific but why?

• To know what to expect and have clarity.
• To know what needs to be delivered with tangible metrics.
• To help you identify what is working, and what is not, so you can be more agile in adapting or making changes to get there.
• To understand the progress, so you can improve and move closer to your goal.

So, what questions can you ask yourselves to ensure that you’re always moving closer to your set goals?

• What exactly do I want to achieve?
• Is my goal clear and concise enough that it can be explained to anyone within one sentence?
• Within that sentence is the timeframe and the metrics clear?

Transparent

FAST Goals must be transparent to those you work with and other stakeholders but why?

• To help each stakeholder to understand how your goals align with dept and company strategy.
• To help each stakeholder understand how your current activity is aligned to your goals.
• To help you and colleagues see opportunities for collaboration.
• To coordinate better across silos.
• To improve the understanding of current progress.
• To change goals that aren’t aligned with company or dept strategy
• To remove activities that aren’t helping you move towards the goals,
• To place resources in the right place.

So, what questions can you ask yourselves to support you in giving an overall view of your current progress and help identify whether what you’re focussing on is helping you achieve the goal?

• What role do we play in achieving this goal?
• Is the task we’re doing really contributing to the success of reaching the goal?
• What is our progress and how do we utilize our resource more effectively.

So from now on, do away with SMART and try using FAST to get ultimate dynamic performance!

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