The abbreviation SMART is now ubiquitous and most often alludes to some kind of ‘intelligence’ or ‘smartness’ of this or that phenomenon. Like smartphones or SMART-TV, etc. But in management this abbreviation has a slightly different meaning, and there is no marketing here.
The abbreviation S.M.A.R.T. has no single correct decoding, so we will consider possible variants of reading and interpretation in detail below.
The main purpose of the SMART methodology is the correct and most effective formulation of objectives, implying not general but more specific formulations.
Problems of task formulation
As followers of Hubbard’s ideas would say, each person lives in his own universe, and the main problem of communication is the proper interaction of the universes of different people.
And indeed, no one knows what goes on in another person’s head. And if in ordinary communication sharp corners can be easily smoothed or bypassed, then when setting tasks it is necessary to synchronize the ‘universes’ of the boss and the subordinate with greater detail.
A simple example.
A newcomer to the team is having a birthday soon. The manager calls him to the office and actually sets him the task to wine and dine colleagues.
Since the new employee has no experience, he does not know the local rituals yet, he has not yet established communication with his colleagues, and he is shy to ask someone about organizing a birthday party, the newcomer decides to act according to the situation. Due to the fact that he hasn’t had an advance payment or salary yet, the employee decides to save money and buy a cake from the nearest chain shop. According to his calculations, even one small cake should be enough for the department he works in.
As a result, several neighboring departments gather for the celebration, as it is considered a norm of corporate culture in this company, there is not enough food for everyone. Besides, many people expect pizza from the restaurant across the street for lunch, not dessert. The effect of the event is, to put it mildly, ‘not very good’, the newcomer’s introduction into the team does not evoke the most positive associations.
The level of trust on the part of the manager naturally drops, as does the self-esteem of the new employee. Most likely, their future work will not go well.
As it turned out, a special piggy bank is formed for all employee birthdays, from which the table is organized. Funds in the piggy bank are collected by several departments located on the same floor. With the owner of the pizzeria opposite has long-established co-operation, and all employees are given a special discount, and for birthday kids it is even more significant. To order a ‘table’ is enough to make a call, and all the necessary food will be delivered to the office in half an hour. The rest of the money from the piggy bank is solemnly handed over to the birthday kid in an envelope.
Now let’s look at the reasons for the failure.
- The employee did not specify all the details of the upcoming event. This is partly his fault. If you do not have an understanding of what and how to do, it is definitely worthwhile to clarify everything in a timely manner.
- Since there were no specifics when setting the task, there is also the fault of the manager. Simple formulations without clarification are possible only in established teams, where everyone knows what and how to do. Unfortunately, teams are formed very rarely and often only as a result of long-term joint work. We wrote about teams here.
- As a result, the vision of a specific result in the manager’s head and in the subordinate’s head did not coincide. The output was not the best result.
All this could have been avoided if the new employee and his manager had timely ‘synchronized’ their subject ‘universes’, i.e., their vision of the situation (in this case — methods of task implementation or even specific steps).
The SMART methodology is designed to avoid misinterpretation and to set goals and tasks correctly.
What SMART stands for in management theory?
In different articles, scientific papers and publications, the abbreviation SMART is deciphered in different ways. In the table, we have collected the most frequent meanings.
| Letter | The most frequent meanings | Alternative meanings |
| S. | Specific | Strategic |
| M. | Measurable | Motivating |
| A. | Achievable or Attainable | Assignable, Agreed, action-oriented, ambitious, aligned with corporate goals, attainable and achievable |
| R. | Relevant | Realistic, resourced, reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based |
| T. | Time-bound or Time-limited | Trackable, time-based, time-oriented, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive, timeframe, testable |
By the way, the spelling S.M.A.R.T. is more often used rather than SMART to avoid confusion with the more common prefix used in gadgets and technology.
The term is applied to tasks or goals.
How to work according to SMART-methodology in companies and teams
The main idea is to be more specific.
The clearer you formulate your goals or objectives, the clearer they will be to your subordinates, and therefore the more expected results will be.
And everything you need to do should be specified directly in the task:
- Objective (should be based on specificity and relevance).
- Quantitative indicators (measurable result, but necessarily achievable).
- Time allocated to the performer (the framework within which the result is expected).
Note that all of these overlap with the basic tasks of any manager (planning, assigning an executor, setting the goal, resourcing, monitoring and analysing).
Indeed, if most of the important information is already in the task formulation, the executors’ degree of freedom is significantly reduced. All they have to do is to do as the manager says.
How to set S.M.A.R.T. methodology objectives
If a process can be standardized, it is a technology.
The SMART tasking procedure can be standardized as follows (example of a typical sentence structure):
- What is to be done (future or present tense verb) — achieve, maintain, build up, increase, etc.
- Object targeted (noun) — sales, figures, contract, etc.
- Quantitative indicators (specific numbers or percentages) — by 1 million roubles, by 25% compared to the previous period, etc.
- Time frame — in a month/two months, by such-and-such date, etc.
- Objective (optional), formatted as a thesis after a combination of words ‘in order to’, — for example, to expand the sphere of influence, to increase market presence, etc.
You can use these theses as a kind of constructor. But do not idealize it. The wording can also be freer.
Examples of SMART tasks
Instead of a thousand words of theory, sometimes examples from practice work best. How to set tasks and how not to set tasks.
| Wrong | Right |
| Increase sales | Increase sales in the next month by 15% compared to the previous month |
| Increase site traffic | Increase the number of visitors from search engines by 10% and from advertising networks by 5%. |
| Earn 2 million roubles more at the end of the quarter (there is no indication how to do this) | Increase sales to 2 million roubles in absolute terms at the end of the quarter by reducing prices and finding new partners. |
| Reduce complaints | During the week, provide duty managers with special authorization to give free discounts (up to 20%) to conflict customers in order to reduce the volume of complaints. |
Disadvantages of SMART
Overly detailed tasks, in which everything that is needed is already described, overburden the managers, as they have to decide everything in advance — what and how to do, and at the same time relax the executors. The latter can always refer to the fact that something was not in the task, and simply will not do what was not announced.
Such a scheme brings the management mechanism closer to micromanagement. It is extremely ineffective in some branches of activity, where great freedom of action on the part of executors is assumed.
The second point is that SMART is not suitable for strategic planning, when it is difficult to forecast specific numerical indicators and detailed actions of subordinates. When forming a company’s strategy and mission, general theses and formulations are best.
Also, SMART will definitely not appeal to established teams working according to other methods. It will be pointless to introduce a new technology if employees already understand simple formulations, without mandatory specifics. When everyone is on the same wavelength, no more specifics are needed.
Automation tools
Within Projecto, you can formulate tasks and goals in any way you like. The system adapts flexibly to any methodology.
For each task, you can define:
- End time and periodicity (if the task requires repetition).
- Responsible executors (one or several).
- Reminders (one-time and scheduled).
- Checklists (for breaking down complex activities into simpler ones and marking them as completed).
- The location and project to which the task relates.
Tasks are issued ‘against signature’ (with mandatory notification in the personal profile), so the employee will not miss anything. A subordinate can refuse a task, but they will have to justify their refusal (describe the reason in a special form).
In case of questions and clarifications, there is a built-in chat where employees can clarify everything they need. A chat is tied to a specific task.
All you need to implement the SMART approach is to formulate theses correctly in the ‘Title’ and ‘Description’ fields.
