Performance Management in Success Factors
with Alt Kagesa
September 9th, 2014
Alt Kagesa draws from the everyday and pop culture to bring life to the process and considerations needed to write clear and measurable goals. An example was a funny story from his life about the right tool for the job. You'll have to take the workshop to hear the story, but the lesson was, "Don’t use a wrench when you need a hammer." It’s often not the tool's fault it’s just not being used the way it was designed. A goal is only useful it is has clear meaning and can gives guidance on ways to reach it. This approach to goal writing has come to be know as SMARTgoal setting.
A guide for writing quality SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time limited) is to use “2 BY WHEN“. It’s simple to remember and easy to use, but takes practice to master so be patient and get feedback.
Here is an example:
“2 BY WHEN“
To decrease the time of delivery from six to three days by December 5.
You can see the goal meets each of the aspects of SMART:
Specific: It gives the What, How and When
Measurable: Six to three days
Achievable: Should give you pause, but you can do it. (Not too easy, not too hard)
Relevant: Perhaps your division wants to improve customer satisfaction and you determine reducing delivery time will do this.
Time Limited: You have a deadline you can put on your calendar, Dec. 5th
I look forward to bringing these goal setting skills to other tasks. When there is not a physical deliverable like a document you may struggle with knowing when the goal has been reached and how well you did.
In other words what is the measurable part of the outcome. It is easy to say, “I’m going to bring more cultural vibrancy into my work by the end of the month,” but what does that look like? It’s important to have measurable outcomes so you know how you are doing. To be honest it is easier if you make it measurable. Lets consider the goal about cultural vibrancy from before and define “more cultural vibrancy” as being able to speak five new Hawaiian greetings without error with my co-workers. You can see how this gives more direction and something to hold on to. If I am able to rattle off these phrases without missing a syllable by the end of the month I know I reached my goal. Gold star for me. It doesn’t stop there of course. If you have to set goals and tasks for other people you’ll make everyone's life easier if the goal is written as a SMARTgoal using the “2 BY WHEN“. Everyone knows what’s expected, when it’s due, and what it should look like when its done. Sounds like common sense right?
If you found this interesting and would like more information about SMARTgoals I recommend taking this training with Alt Kagesa, you will not be disappointed.
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