Thanksgiving, Racetracks, and SMART Goals
Growing up, my cousins and I spent Thanksgiving afternoons in our grandparent’s semi-finished basement where the toys lived. While my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles chattered upstairs, my brother, cousins, and I were running around downstairs. In the array of toys, there was one that always seemed to capture our attention and bring us all together toward a common goal. The racetrack.
The racetrack was a modular, buildable track with loops and turns and blocks. While I’m sure the intention of the racetrack creator was for us to create tracks to race side by side, we were far more interested in testing the limitations of what our little imaginations could build. Our goal was to build a single racetrack that extended across the basement, included multiple elements, and could still be traversed successfully by a Hot Wheels car.
It was a lot of trial and error, flying cars, and broken tracks. There were cheers when we were successful and laments when we failed. After the failures and edits, there was nothing quite like the feeling when we would watch our little car happily travel to the other side of the basement across the whole route of a complex and extensive track that we created. That was the ultimate accomplishment of Thanksgiving afternoons.
The feeling is the same when we achieve our goals organizationally, but one of the biggest obstacles that we, or our team members, face is not knowing where to start or how to measure progress toward our goals. When goals are not clear or measurable, this can halt progress and keep us from taking steps forward altogether. Implementing a framework like SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals can create alignment and clarity when it comes to individual and team goals, allowing us to move quickly and in unity toward all we feel the Lord asking us to steward and build.
What are SMART Goals?
Specific – Goals are clearly defined and focused.
Measurable – Goals have specific metrics that can be leveraged to measure progress.
Achievable – Goals are attainable and realistic.
Relevant – Goals are aligned with current organizational objectives.
Time-Bound – Goals have a defined timeline or deadline.
If we were to take our original racetrack goal - to build a single racetrack that extends across the basement, includes multiple elements, and can be traversed successfully by a Hot Wheels car – and update it to include this framework, it would look more like: within 2 hours, build a single racetrack that is 30 feet in length, includes 2 loops and a 3-foot drop, and can be traversed in its entirety by a Hot Wheels car. Subtle changes can make all the difference in a goal being clearly defined, measurable, and achievable.
The Benefits of Using SMART Goals
Have you ever been in a team with a great vision but no clear goals or goal-setting strategy on how to build the vision? When everyone begins to set goals, it can almost feel like the goals are competing or incompatible with one another. In the lack of clarity or aligned action, progress becomes minimal, and the vision feels impossible to accomplish. This is where having an aligned goal-setting framework supports organizational goal setting as well as individual goal setting.
When overall goals are clear to everyone, it also clarifies what individual contribution is needed. Clarity is motivating. There is nothing better than a day where you know exactly what tasks you need to accomplish and you able to check off everything from your task list. SMART goals allow you and your teams to know exactly what needs to be on your list, allow for better planning, and even allow you to see where you may have missed the mark toward the goal so that you can recalibrate and catch up.
Another framework to partner with SMART goals is the four disciplines of execution. You can learn more about how to implement these additional strategies in a previous The Fold article, Unlocking Growth: Harnessing the Four Disciplines of Execution in Your Church.
How to Set and Achieve SMART Goals
Identify the goal: Begin with setting an overall goal that aligns with your long-term objectives and is meaningful to your work. Keep it clear, defined, and specific. It can be tempting to keep the goal broad, but you want it to be so clearly defined that the smaller steps toward achieving the goal are also clear.
Break It Down: Once you have the overall goal, create smaller tasks (additional SMART goals). Keep these actionable, like little stepping stones along the way to your larger goal. For every step you take forward, ask the question, “What is the direct next step toward achieving my goal?”
Set a Timeline: When do you want to accomplish your goal? Set a deadline. Then establish a realistic timeframe for when you will need to complete each subsequent task to arrive at your deadline on time.
Monitor Progress: Set a regular cadence to review the progress toward your goal and adjust your plan as needed. Maybe you will need to add additional smaller tasks or update the timeline. It’s okay to adjust along the way to keep the goal relevant, and achievable in the end.
Celebrate Milestones: When you arrive at a milestone, celebrate it! Within the overall goal, there may be many smaller achievements that are crucial to the overall goal being achieved. Celebrating these moments maintains momentum and engagement in the larger goal.
As a note, organizing goals into cadences - quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily – can be especially helpful for maintaining progress toward larger goals. Once you define cadences, you can leverage repeating events or tasks within calendar or reminders helping you stay on track with the smaller goals/tasks needed to accomplish your overall goals. Set these reminders/events for a period and review/update for relevance regularly. You want them to stay actionable and supportive to your goals, not to become another notification to clear.
Submitted Goals
While I love a good strategy for planning, goal setting, and organization, no framework can substitute the leading of the Lord. As we grow in understanding, we also must grow in submission to God. We need His heart and mind in our goal setting to give us strategies for engaging our congregations and communities.
When we take our goals and ideas to God, He brings perspective, clarity, and insight. When we submit our ways to Him, He makes the path clear (Proverbs 3:6). So, as you set your goals, submit them to the Lord and watch Him bring the insight that you need to truly achieve all that He has called you to achieve.
Happy goal setting!
Amanda Visser
Threefold Solutions
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