Setting goals is critical to our success journey as a civil society organization. However, not every goal is created the same way or with the same success. We need to establish goals smartly and strategically to maximize our success rate. An excellent way to do this is the SMART methodology, a powerful tool that will help you design goals with clarity and achieve your dreams effectively.
Keep reading to find out what this tool is about and how to make the most of it.
What are SMART goals?
SMART goals seek long-term improvement to achieve our organizational mission in the following years. They are mid-term changes that provide a detailed view of our expected outcomes and steps that allow us to get closer to our organizational mission.
SMART is an acronym that stands for the following characteristics:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Time-bound
Each component plays a fundamental role in setting effective and realistic goals.
1. Specific: clearly define your goal
When setting your organization’s SMART goals, they must be as specific as possible. You must address the following key questions: What do you want to achieve? Why is it relevant? How are we going to do it? A good example is the following:
“In 2023, our organization increases the number of abortion service providers that we support and makes sure that they use the evidence we produce to prevent unwanted pregnancy and resort to abortion counseling.”
2. Measurable: quantify progress
Measuring is key to assessing our organization’s progress toward the established goals. A measurable goal lets you determine with precision the progress you have made and how much is left to achieve it. It is also a source of inspiration when you look at your achievements quantitatively. The way to quantify will depend on the goal and its own characteristics, but it is important not to overlook it.
3. Attainable: Analyze contextual opportunities
Even though dreaming big is inspirational, your goals must be achievable and realistic when designing your organization’s SMART goals. For your goals to be attainable, you must consider all the external and internal factors that will help you to achieve them or, on the contrary, the relevant challenges you must face. The goal’s “achievable” part refers to assessing the contextual opportunities and challenges. Is there a favorable environment to achieve the outcomes in our subject of interest? Is the subject part of the public and government’s agenda? Are there other organizations or stakeholders working on the same subject? Are there conditions to ensure that we will meet our goals and that we will provide our team’s security? We generally avoid this assessment because we are thrilled to implement our strategies or because we think that conditions change slowly, but this is a mistake that we must avoid at all costs. Missing this assessment would be like a ship’s captain not knowing the weather forecast in detail before embarking on the sea. We can’t set on a sea journey when everything indicates that there will be a storm!
4. Realistic: Align your goals with your resources and capabilities
The “realistic” part of SMART goals involves considering our organization’s skills, resources, and limitations before designing the goal. Do we know how to achieve what we set for ourselves? Do we have the human, financial, and time resources to undertake the required activities to achieve our goals?
It is common for organizations to stop their activities or lose faith because they think their resources are not enough to meet their goals. Even if this is true, setting SMART goals is the first step to making some progress. Once the steps to follow are ready, it is possible to find alternatives with existing resources to get where we want to go, or we can also design strategies to get the resources we need.
5. Time-bound: set a realistic deadline
When designing SMART goals, we could be tempted to get carried away by excitement. As a result, we could have unrealistic goals. Therefore, we need to set a definitive deadline for each goal, so we don’t forget it. Establishing a deadline provides a temporary structure that helps us to stay focused and committed to our goal. The deadline must be neither so long as to be forgotten nor so short as impossible to achieve. A good strategy is to design big goals and then split them into smaller ones.
Conclusion.
Setting SMART goals is an invaluable tool for success in any area of our organization. Designing specific, measurable, reachable, and realistic goals with a deadline will provide the structure to turn our ideals into tangible realities.
Our goals must be flexible and adjustable as we progress. Celebrating our achievements is also a good idea, even if they seem too small.
If our SMART goals are not fully met, we should redefine them and learn from our findings. If all turns out well and your organization manages to meet its goals, we should continue adapting its goals to reflect its growth and evolution.
The shape and strength of your impact are determined by how you define and redefine the goals you want to achieve along the path to social change. Using tools such as SMART goals—and many others, we can advise you on—your organization will be better prepared and equipped to set, measure, and achieve the goals you collectively aspire to attain, meet your challenges, and achieve your desired success.
If you need help designing or meeting these goals, remember that COMETA is ready to assist you.
