Quite a bit of time is spent considering goals and learning objectives in various spaces. Whether it be in the classroom, the boardroom, or the factory floor, goals and objectives continue to drive our performance. By now, we've all been exposed repeatedly to the notion of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, & Time-Bound) goals in our professional and personal lives. We've drafted them during department meetings, listed them out on performance appraisals, and mapped them out within curricula. We teach the criteria to young people as we ask them to prematurely map out their lives, and we rely on them as markers of success.
The analytical side of me has always appreciated the somewhat straight forward nature of generating goals this way. The approach has helped me avoid the sorts of lofty and unmeasurable goals I'm often prone to consider when left to my own devices. There's a level of planning that the process enables us to engage in which is often beneficial in many different ways. At the same time, the approach has a tendency to leave out the human element.
When our goals involve interacting with other humans, and often creating a change in the way they think, learn, or behavior, it's important to remember that we are not fully rational beings. Our emotions are ever present in our decision making and they influence our perceptions of success. Anyone who has ever achieved an articulated goal and felt unsatisfied with the result (i.e. all of us) knows what I'm talking about.
How we feel about the outcome is often just as important as the outcome itself, especially as a precursor to setting bigger and bolder goals. For this reason, we would do well to ask ourselves a few questions from the outset, while we are establishing our goals and objectives.
"How do I want to feel at the end of this work?"
"How do I want others to feel at the end of this work?"
At first glance, these might seem like throw away questions. We care about the metrics. We want to measure our effort and identify whether or not it reached the desired level. However, our goals and the work we put into them don't happen in isolation. They are the result of previous goals, both achieved and not achieved, and the motivation to do more or do different that resulted.
So, the next time you're setting goals for yourself, by all means make them SMART, but remember to ask yourself how you and others should feel at the conclusion as well.
