Recap of SMART Goals Seminar

On Thursday morning, we held our first SGTA seminar of the semester. The turn out was fantastic! After all, who can resist free coffee and doughnuts in addition to helpful professional development advice?

Our discussion centered around the SMART Goals framework (Doran, 1981). We all have goals we would like to achieve, but how often do our goals turn into actionable, achievable plans?

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

As a first step, we need to frame our goals clearly. That’s where SMART goals come in. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Timebound. Consider the goal, “I want to improve my fitness.” This goal is open-ended with no clear way to measure whether you’ve achieved it. We can transform it into something more specific, like “Run 30 minutes a day for 3 days a week.”

References

Doran, G. T. (1981). “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives”. Management Review70 (11): 35–36.

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