Sunday, January 07, 2007

SMART Goals

Good morning Ben,
I had the opportunity in the early '90's to work with a group of women
executives from HJ Heinz. One of the tools we developed together became
the SMART Goals model you cite...
Here is how it was originally envisioned...

S - Specific and Sense-able (I'll know it when I can see, hear, smell... it)
M - Meaningful and Measurable - the emphasis was on What's In It For Me
(WIIFM) - for both the accomplishment and non-accomplishment of the goal
A- Action Oriented, Actionable, Agreed Upon - The phrasing of the goal
needs to support and strongly suggest action - not just to the
individual - but to members of their support system - which makes Agreed
Upon so important...
R- Realistic and Reasonable - again focused as much on the support
system as the individual
T- Time Bound and Tangible - If the outcome aren't Sense-able -
Measurable = Tangible - how will anyone know they've been met

These ladies were part of a pre-emptive turnaround inside of Heinz -
they were the leaders of Weight Watchers...


Best...
Jeff