Strategic Roadmap: Objectives & Goals

Matt Kerzner:I've already walked you through the strategic roadmap at a high overview in a previous video, and I've already covered step one. So I'd like to talk to you about step two. This is the outcomes and goals that you're looking to put together for your large organization. This could be one, three and five year goals. When we're putting our goals together, we use the SMART methodology of putting goals together. Smart stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timeframe. Let me give you an example, when I'm working with an organization, I always use John F. Kennedy, when he was president in the early 60s. He did not put a goal together saying, "We want to land a man on the moon." That wasn't very specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timeframe. But if you change the verbiage just slightly, as he did, which was, "By the end of the decade, we want to land a man on the moon."

That is now a smart goal. Why? Because it was very specific. By the end of the decade, he wants to land a man on the moon. Is it measurable? Absolutely. If you look at 1970, you can look back to see by the end of the decade in the 60s, did we land a man on the moon? Was it relevant? It sure was. We were going through a Cold War at the time and we needed to land a man on the moon before our competition. Was it achievable? It was definitely a stretch, but we had the technology and we already orbited the earth. So it was definitely a stretch, but it was an achievable goal. And by having a timeframe on it, by the end of the decade, made it very specific to make sure that we are working towards that goal. So it's very important when you're putting goals together that you do it in the SMART format.