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Setting SMARTER Goals eLearning
Online goal setting training using the SMARTER framework: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound, then evaluated and reviewed.
Who it is for
Who this setting smarter goals course is for
Goals fail for predictable reasons: too vague to measure, too big to start, or set once and never looked at again. SMARTER adds the two steps that most goal setting leaves out.
- Line managers setting objectives for a team
- Anyone writing their own development goals
- Supervisors running appraisals
- Project and team leaders
- HR teams running performance processes
- Small business owners setting business objectives
Course content
What the setting smarter goals course covers
Eight short modules on writing goals that work, and on the evaluation and review that turn them into something more than a form.
Why goals fail
Vagueness, size, ownership and the goal nobody looks at again.
Specific
Turning an intention into something concrete.
Measurable
Deciding in advance what evidence will show it is done.
Achievable
Stretch without fantasy, and the resources a goal needs.
Relevant
Connecting individual goals to what the organisation is trying to do.
Time-bound
Deadlines, milestones and avoiding the deadline that is always next quarter.
Evaluated
Building in the check-ins that keep a goal alive.
Reviewed
Adjusting or abandoning a goal honestly when circumstances change
Outcomes
What you will be able to do afterwards
- Explain why most goals fail
- Write a goal that is specific and measurable
- Judge whether a goal is achievable with the resources available
- Connect an individual goal to organisational objectives
- Set realistic deadlines and milestones
- Build evaluation into a goal from the start
- Review and adjust a goal honestly
Practicalities
How the course works
For employers
Setting SMARTER Goals training for a team
Objectives are more useful when a whole management layer writes them the same way, appraisals get shorter and the goals get comparable.
- One invoice instead of a card payment per person
- Licences allocated as people join, so induction is covered
- Completion and expiry reporting for your records
- Renewal reminders before certificates lapse
- Bespoke versions built around your own procedures
Structured decision making pairs naturally with structured goal setting. See the Problem Solving course →
Setting SMARTER Goals eLearning: common questions
Evaluated and Reviewed. Those two steps are what stop a goal being written once and forgotten, which is the most common failure.
Both. Managers setting objectives for others and individuals writing their own development goals use the same framework.
It covers the goal-setting part of them. How your organisation runs appraisals is a matter for your own process.
That is what the review step is for. The course is explicit that abandoning a goal honestly is better than quietly missing it.
Yes. The framework scales from personal development goals to team and business objectives, though larger objectives usually need breaking down.
About 30 minutes, with no time limit: start it, pause it, and come back whenever suits. The certificate is issued the moment you finish.
Yes. It runs in a browser on any modern phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to install.
Yes. Open a business account and we invoice you for the licences, which you allocate as people need them, with completion reporting included.
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