SMART goals have been the gold standard for as long as I can remember. And certainly we’ve all set our fair share of them. But in a time when reform is foremost on most folks’ minds, how can we fail to ask whether or not SMART goals are relevant in today’s world. Is it logic or blind faith that keeps so many leaders on the specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and time-bound path?
There’s no trusted timeline that takes us back to how it all began. So we’ll never know if SMART goals sprung, fully grown, or if they just fizzled into existence based on trial and error.
What we do know for sure is that SMART goals were a product of the 1950’s; the era of the man in the grey flannel suit. It was a mere 50 years out from the industrial revolution and thinking outside the box wasn’t even a glimmer in a CEO’s eye. Innovation, when needed, came from the top. As far as employees were concerned, the workplace was linear and predictable. Command and control leadership was expected along with endless check lists (SMART goals being one of them) that kept folks firmly in check. You put in your 40 or 50 years, did what you were told to do, kept your ideas to yourself, and if you were lucky, you left with a pension and a gold watch.
Not exactly today’s world of keep it loose, keep it fluid, do whatever it takes to unlock innovation. Sure, SMART goals are safe, there’s nothing in there that isn’t realistic and achievable. But when was the last time one of your SMART goals encouraged your employees to come up with a big idea; something on par with the iPod, Amazon Kindle, Google or the Human Genome Project? No one is going to convince me any of those were the result of a realistic and achievable SMART goal.
SMART goals may have been smart 50 some odd years ago, but they’ve outlived the world for which they were created. In today’s world, SMART goals often act as impediments to, not enablers of, bold action. And that’s pretty dumb. The best leaders aren’t focused on goals that fall within the realm of the eminently achievable. They aren’t sacrificing innovation for a waiting game where every resource must first be allocated, every milestone clarified, every assumption tested, every participant vetted, every response anticipated, every market researched, and every skill developed. Instead, they are busy unlocking the extraordinary and pushing their people past their limits.
