I have always found setting goals useful. This weekend I will turn sixty and I am taking the chance to spend time defining goals for my next decade. I am finding it a valuable process.
There are some pitfalls with goals. One is that setting goals can itself become a form of procrastination, like all lists. Oliver Burkeman in the Guardian Weeklyfrequently advises us to be careful of tools that can be used that make us feel productive but defer action. The daily checklist is the most obvious example. Many of us can comfortably make it to the afternoon without actually achieving anything useful, simply by wasting time making lists. Lists are not achievements. They are meant to help us prioritise and define actions, but they achieve nothing unless we actually do the actions.
That is another pitfall of goals, especially in politics. Often a platform is a set of goals, usually the sort of universal goals that nobody could object to, but with no definable policies to achieve the goals. Left-wingers want to reduce inequality, but struggle to define meaningful policies that would retain support during implementation.
Even so, such goals are better than nothing, which is just as well because often they are all we are given to help us decide how to vote. Trump was always devoid of policies and even the goals were vague, but we should not be surprised that many actions have been anti-immigrant and pro-business.
Elisabeth Warren shows how doing goals the right way can work against getting elected. She had clear goals and set down policies that demonstrably would have worked towards achieving them. Sadly, every policy attracted the ire of some interest group and set her up as a target and ultimately doomed her campaign. A robust debate process and an intelligent media would help, but while we lack those Bidenesque vagueness may be smart. But in business we don’t have to be so naïve. If a new CEO, or even a new boss, arrives with a set of goals that sound convincing, celebrate their courage but then stay cynical until you see some policies and plans to back them up.
There is a lot of literature about how goals should be SMART, that is specific, measurable and so on, but in my experience lack of SMARTness is not the major problem. The letter of SMART that is most important for me is the last one, T for timed.
Often people set goals because they are told to, with a time duration set by somebody else. Budgets and staff reports are annual and require input according to deadlines. Again, these goals are better than nothing, but thinking about time horizons can lead to more useful goals.
For many projects, I recommend as many as three time horizons, each always with a current set of goals. The longest horizon is for the end of the project or a major milestone. The shortest is not much more than an action list. The middle is the most useful and bridges the other two. How could we describe a good place to be in six months if we complete the next twenty action lists? What description in six months time would place us best on the journey towards the project goals?
It is also important to review goals at the most useful frequency. For the short term, I might like a horizon of two weeks but a review each week, so there is a rolling update of actions and achievements. The long-term goals should be reviewed too, perhaps annually, to take account of new realities. The middle set can be a fantastic agenda for a quarterly team meeting. What did we achieve? What can we learn? Where do we stand against the bigger picture? Where do we go from here? What will have to be different to succeed?
The other parts of SMART can be flexible depending on time horizon too, and not all goals need to be as SMART as each other. The short-term list usually needs tight definition and clear accountabilities, but the middle list can mix this sort of goal with more subjective items, for example relating to a culture or a reputation with key stakeholders. The long-term ones can be similarly mixed, some defined by project boundaries and others perhaps more about ways of working or setting up for the future.
I remember exactly when I composed my goals for my fifties. I did it while away from the office and over a relaxing week, but otherwise the occasion was not conducive at all. I’d recently made a decision to quit work without really thinking it through, and I was hurtling into a marriage crisis having just escaped a long period of denial. Still, crafting the goals helped find some perspective amidst turmoil.
Given that the decade encompassed a change of career, life partner and continent, the goals held up remarkably well. Here is what I set down eleven years ago:
· Enjoy company (real or virtual), offering intelligence, depth, vitality, and challenge of assumptions.
· Coach interesting young people to grow with confidence. Start this with my daughter, grandchildren, or others.
· Achieve deep relaxation, from sunshine, no need for wearing many layers, time, the lack of everyday stress, fresh air. Maintain robust fitness of the mind and body.
· Follow my musical passion – singing, choir directing, listening, understanding, appreciating, performing, experiencing.
· Take cultural, spiritual, and educational journeys. Find wonder from history, nature, beauty, magnificence, literature, architecture, sport, films, philosophy, food and drink, and human radiance.
I still like the list. It is manifestly not SMART, and I think it is better for it. There are few obvious actions indicated, but they give guidance and have enough depth to remain valid for an extended period. I have referred to them explicitly a few times during the decade, and many other times sub-consciously, most especially when I first defined them. It would not have been a sin to change some of them every so often, but that has not proven necessary.
It is also quite easy to assess now how successful I’ve been. The first one was always going to be a challenge without a regular office environment, but through reading and blogging and seeking out interesting people I think I have managed to grow. The other four have formed a sort of background agenda for the choices I have made over the decade, even though compromises have been inevitable and events have sometimes conspired in other directions. Deep relaxation is not simple in New York City!
If I give myself a star rating for each goal, I think I have done the least well at the last one. I can be rather lazy, and I’ll certainly embrace journeys when they are forced or appear in front of me, but I think I could do more to proactively seek them out. That is a key learning for the list I have been marinating for my sixties. How can I be a more proactive explorer?
Apart from the ever-present stress of the pandemic, the last weeks have been perfect for goal setting, so I have high expectations for my new list. I am also take the chance to merge my own list with that of my wife, and have found it an excellent method for taking some perspective on what is important for each of us and where we can help or team up and where we must compromise. God willing by the time I write my next blog I’ll have started a new decade and will be back in New York, and hopefully will have a new set of goals to guide me.
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