FE577

Developing SMART Goals for Your Organization1

“You've got to be very careful if you don't tactical (defining specific short-term results for units
know where you're going, because you might not get within the organization). Goals serve as an internal
there.” – Yogi Berra source of motivation and commitment and provide a
guide to action as well as a means of measuring
“Goal setting is one of the basic tools used by performance (Barton, 2000). Defining organizational
organizations to assist in setting a direction and goals helps to conceptualize and articulate the future
achieving it. Successful organizations often set long- direction of the organization, thus allowing those
and short-term goals for service development, responsible for setting that direction to develop a
improving quality, reducing errors, becoming more common understanding of where the organization is
customer-focused, and building better internal and heading. Goals provide a way of assuring that an
public relations.” – Jeffery Davis, Managing and organization will get where it wants to go.
Achieving Organizational Goals
Setting Goals
Individuals may set goals to achieve a personal
objective such as career advancement. This How goals are set is as important as the goal
publication is designed to introduce a sequential itself. Thus it is important that goals meet specific
process for setting goals. It begins by defining a goal criteria that can be used to easily assess them. One
and identifying reasons for setting goals. It then way of doing this is to use the acronym “SMART”
describes a process based on the acronym SMART as a way of evaluating the goal. An internet search
for developing and implementing goals. for “SMART” goals yielded some 6.7 million hits.
One of those hits, Measure-X.com said that “the
Defining "Goal" origin of the acronym is lost, and the specific traits
are not universally agreed upon, [but] SMART goals
A goal is a statement of a desired future an
still provide a great framework to improve your goal
organization wishes to achieve. It describes what the
setting and help you create more effective goals.” A
organization is trying accomplish. Goals may be
further search of the first forty websites found that
strategic (making broad statements of where the
organization wishes to be at some future point) or

1. This is EDIS document FE577, a publication of the Department of Food and Resource Economics, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food
and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. Published November 2005. Reviewed December 2008. Please visit the EDIS website at
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.
2. Henry M. Cothran, Associate-In, and Allen F. Wysocki, Associate Professor, Department of Food and Resource Economics, Florida Cooperative Extension
Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and
other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex,
sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service,
University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Larry
Arrington, Dean
Developing SMART Goals for Your Organization 2

most used the following words to define a be challenging. It should be set by or in concert with
“SMART” goal: the person responsible for its achievement. The
organization's leadership, and where appropriate its
• Specific stakeholders, should agree that the goal is important
and that appropriate time and resources will be
• Measurable
focused on its accomplishment. An attainable goal
• Attainable should also allow for flexibility. A goal that can no
longer be achieved should be altered or abandoned.
• Relevant
Relevant
• Time-bound
Goals should be appropriate to and consistent
Specific with the mission and vision of the organization. Each
goal adopted by the organization should be one that
A goal is specific when it provides a description
moves the organization toward the achievement of its
of what is to be accomplished. A specific goal is a
vision. Relevant goals will not conflict with other
focused goal. It will state exactly what the
organizational goals. As noted earlier, goals are set
organization intends to accomplish. While the by or in concert with the person responsible for
description needs to be specific and focused, it also
achievement. It is important that all short-term goals
needs to be easily understood by those involved in its
be relevant (e.g., consistent) with the longer-term and
achievement. It should be written so that it can be
broader goals of the organization.
easily and clearly communicated. A specific goal will
make it easier for those writing objectives and action Time-bound
plans to address the following questions:
Finally a goal must be bound by time. That is, it
• Who is to be involved? must have a starting and ending point. It should also
have some intermediate points at which progress can
• What is to be accomplished?
be assessed. Limiting the time in which a goal must
• Where is it to be done? be accomplished helps to focus effort toward its
achievement.
• When is it to be done?
References
Measurable
Barton, R.B. 2000. Chapter 7, Organizational
A goal is measurable if it is quantifiable. Goal Setting and Planning. Murray State University,
Measurement is accomplished by first obtaining or Murray, KY.
establishing base-line data. It will also have a target http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/
toward which progress can be measured, as well as rb.barton/40mgmt07.ppt#256,1,chapter7.
benchmarks to measure progress along the way. A
measurable goal will answer questions such as: Davis, Jeffery H. N/D. Chapter 1, Managing and
Achieving Organization Goals. American
• How much? Management Association, New York, NY.
http://www.flexstudy.com/catalog/
• How many?
index.cfm?location=sch&coursenum=95086.
• How will you know when it is accomplished?
Measure-X. S.M.A.R.T. Goals. N.D. E-mail
Attainable Newsletter #27, Phoenix, AZ.
http://www.measure-x.com/newsletter/27.html.
There should be a realistic chance that a goal can
be accomplished. This does not mean or imply that
goals should be easy. On the contrary, a goal should