Are S.M.A.R.T goals really that smart?

The technique involves imagining so specifically what it will be like to achieve what you are aiming for that you effectively "plant a seed" for the goal in your mind.  As it uses the way your brain naturally works it makes achieving your goal far easier.  Once you have gone through this technique you will automatically begin to notice opportunities in your day-to-day work for moving you closer to your goal and will be much more motivated which is the real key to achieving goals.

I have worked with many highly skilled project directors and project managers in business and very few have come across or used this approach.  However, when they experience the process themselves, they are most impressed.

The process involves asking yourself just two main questions and, if necessary, a third supporting question.

The first main question to ask yourself (by talking to yourself in your head) is:

What do I want?

Write down the answer.  Is your answer stated positively, i.e. does it state what you want to achieve, rather than what you want to avoid?  For example, I might write down, "I want to prevent conflict in my team".  This is not positively stated because it states what I want to avoid.  The problem with focussing on what you want to avoid is that you are more likely to get that, rather than what you do want, as you end up thinking about it.  So, if what you have written down as your goal isn't positively stated, then ask yourself the supplementary question, "What will this do for me?", and write down the answer.  Keep asking yourself this question and writing down the answer until your answer is positively stated.

If I continue with my example the answer I get is, "It will give me a team which is working together".  This is positively stated, but doesn't sound compelling enough for me.  It's important to end up with something which sounds compelling to you so that you have the motivation to achieve it.  So to obtain a more compelling statement, I ask the question, "What will it do for me?", again, and get the answer, "It will give me a high performing team", which is good enough for me to run with.  I now have something which with a bit of re-wording gives the goal "I want to turn my team into a high performing unit".  Having written a positively stated and compelling goal, the second main question to ask yourself (and where the real power of the technique lies) is:

How will I know when I've got it?

Write down what you will see, hear and feel when you've achieved your goal?  Really get into detail with your answer.  Just write down whatever ideas you think of as they come to mind.  There is no need to structure your thoughts.  There will be a mix of big things and seemingly trivial (although actually very important to the process) things.  It might help to consider in turn what you might see, then what you might hear, then what you might feel.  Don't be too rigid, as however the ideas flow is fine.

In the following example the words I have written in brackets are to aid your understanding of the process.  You do not need to write down the equivalent of the words in brackets when you actually run through the process yourself.  So in my example I might write: I will see my team behaving in a cooperative way...adding to each other's ideas...challenging points in a constructive way.  I will see them seeking to use each other's strengths by asking for help from each other.  Jim will be asking Sally to review his written reports (she is good at the detail)...Sally will ask Jim to help her sell her proposals to Steven and Jane (Steven and Jane are key players in another division of the company, Jims strength is that he is a natural ideas salesperson), Joe will smile (seemingly trivial point but actually far from it) at team meetings (Joe hates team meetings because of all the "politic-ing" that goes on).

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