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NM Freemason · Skills & Drills · Chapter 52

Goals: SMART and meaningful

Drawn from published Masonic monitor content. See site Credits for source citations.

Vocabulary (13)

SMART
The published acronym for what makes a goal actionable: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. Coined by George T. Doran in Management Review, November 1981. Doran's actual paper called the test "smart" because it was meant to be remembered, not to be reverent. The five letters cover the most common failure modes of a stated goal.
Specific
The first SMART letter. A specific goal names exactly what changes: what gets done, by whom, where, with which resources. "Get healthier" is not specific; "walk 30 minutes after dinner four nights a week" is. Specificity rules out plausible deniability when the goal isn't met.
Measurable
The second SMART letter. A measurable goal has a number (or a yes/no) you can check at the end. Drucker's repeated maxim, "what gets measured gets managed," sits behind this letter. If you can't tell whether you hit it, you also can't tell whether you tried.
Achievable
The third SMART letter. The goal is reachable given current circumstance and resources. Doran's framing: a stretch is good, an impossible target is theater. The check isn't "is this easy?" but "is there a credible path from here to there?" If you can't sketch the path, the goal is aspiration, not goal.
Relevant
The fourth SMART letter. The goal serves the role and the value it's attached to. A goal that's specific, measurable, and achievable but doesn't move any role you care about is a distraction. Relevance is what role-based planning supplies; without roles named first, this letter has nothing to check against.
Time-bound
The fifth SMART letter. The goal has a date by which it's met or missed. "Eventually" is not a date; "by the last Friday of October" is. Time-bound goals create the small pressure that closes the loop. Without it, the goal stays open forever and the brain stops treating it as real.
Leading vs. lagging indicator
A leading indicator predicts the result before it arrives (study hours per week predict exam score). A lagging indicator confirms the result after the fact (the exam score itself). Goals are usually phrased as the lagging measure; tasks track the leading ones. A goal you can't break into a leading indicator is hard to manage week to week.
1% better
James Clear's framing in Atomic Habits (2018): small daily gains compound. Improve 1% a day for a year and you're 37 times better; lose 1% a day for a year and you're at 0.03 of where you started. The math is illustrative, not literal, but the principle stands: goals don't move in leaps; they move in tiny consistent margins.
Begin with the end in mind
Covey's Habit 2. Before you start a goal, picture the finished result clearly: what's been done, by whom, by when, with what visible mark of completion. Habit 2 sits between values and SMART because it forces the man to see the end before he picks the means. Two questions seal the habit: at the end of this year, what should be done? At the end of my life, what should I be remembered for?
Expanded SMART (8 elements)
The York Rite Leadership extension of the classic five-letter SMART. A workable goal is also Actionable (clear next step), Divided into progressive steps, Communicated to those affected, Assimilated by the team, Measured against the standard, and Adjusted based on reality as it changes. The point isn't acronym worship; it's that a goal that survives contact with a real week needs more than five tests. Use the original SMART as the gate; use these three as the maintenance kit.
OKR
Objectives and Key Results. A modern alternative to SMART popularized by Andy Grove at Intel and John Doerr (Measure What Matters, 2018). An Objective is the qualitative goal ("close out the year strong as Senior Warden"); the Key Results are the three to five measurable signals that say it was done. OKRs are noisier than SMART for personal use; they shine when a lodge or a committee uses them together because the Key Results force a shared definition of "done."
Law of Navigation (Maxwell)
John Maxwell's fourth Irrefutable Law: "Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course." The Law of Navigation is what SMART goals do for a man: it forces him to lay the route in writing before the trip starts, so the daily steering happens against a known plan. Without the chart, steering becomes reaction. Maxwell's research note on the law: leaders who refuse to navigate get rewarded with crews who decide on their own where the ship is going.
BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)
From Collins & Porras, Built to Last (1994): a Big Hairy Audacious Goal is a 10-to-30-year goal so concrete and so large that it galvanizes effort across years and across people. SMART scoping is the right tool for next quarter; a BHAG is the right tool for the long arc. The two work in series: the BHAG sets the horizon, and SMART goals each year ladder toward it. The Craft's vision documents are BHAGs in slow motion.

Sequences (2)

Writing a SMART goal from a wish, in five passes

The five SMART letters, applied in order, turn a vague aspiration into a workable goal. Don't skip a letter just because the wish already passes it; the order builds discipline.
  1. Specific: what exactly happens? Who does it? Where? With what resources?
  2. Measurable: what number (or yes/no) tells you it was done?
  3. Achievable: is there a credible path from where you are now to that result?
  4. Relevant: which named role does this serve? Which named value does it advance?
  5. Time-bound: by what date does this happen?

Setting goals against roles, the role-based pass

Once SMART is in your toolbox, Covey's role-based weekly plan brings it to scale. The grain is the week, the unit is the role, and each role gets one or two sharpening goals.
  1. Look at your role list. Pick two roles that most need attention this week.
  2. For each, write one SMART goal that moves the role forward by Friday.
  3. Block the time for the goal's leading indicator (the daily/weekly task) on your calendar first.
  4. On Friday, mark the goal hit or missed. Note one sentence on what got in the way if it missed.

Multiple-choice (12)

1. What does the SMART acronym stand for?
  1. Strategic, Material, Action, Resourced, Time-tracked
  2. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound ✓
  3. Sound, Mature, Active, Ready, Targeted
  4. Stable, Modular, Adaptive, Robust, Trackable
2. Who first published the SMART framework and when?
  1. Peter Drucker, 1954, in The Practice of Management
  2. Stephen Covey, 1989, in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  3. George T. Doran, 1981, in Management Review ✓
  4. James Clear, 2018, in Atomic Habits
3. Why is "Measurable" in the acronym?
  1. Because numbers make goals look more serious
  2. Because if you can't tell whether you hit it, you also can't tell whether you tried (Drucker) ✓
  3. Because it forces you to learn math
  4. Because it sounds better than "trackable"
4. What's the difference between a leading and a lagging indicator?
  1. Leading indicators are positive, lagging are negative
  2. Leading indicators predict the result before it arrives; lagging indicators confirm it after the fact ✓
  3. Leading indicators are weekly, lagging are annual
  4. There is no real difference
5. What's the central message of Clear's "1% better" framing?
  1. You should always improve by exactly 1% a day
  2. Small consistent daily margins compound; goals don't move in leaps but in tiny gains ✓
  3. 1% is the right success rate for any goal
  4. Daily goals should be small enough to fit in a 1% slot of the day
6. What does "Relevant" check against, in the SMART model used here?
  1. Whether the goal is interesting
  2. Whether the goal serves the role and the value it's attached to ✓
  3. Whether the goal can be googled
  4. Whether the goal applies to other people too
7. Why is "Time-bound" needed?
  1. Because deadlines make goals more stressful
  2. Because without a date the goal stays open forever and the brain stops treating it as real ✓
  3. Because calendars are more accurate than notebooks
  4. Because annual cycles are how lodges work
8. What's Covey's Habit 2, and what does it call for?
  1. Be Proactive: take initiative no matter the circumstance
  2. Begin with the End in Mind: picture the finished result before you start the work ✓
  3. Put First Things First: prioritize the urgent before the unimportant
  4. Sharpen the Saw: invest in self-renewal
9. What's the difference between SMART (Doran 1981) and OKR (Grove/Doerr)?
  1. OKRs are easier to write
  2. SMART is one goal with five tests; an OKR is a qualitative Objective paired with 3-5 measurable Key Results, and OKRs shine when a group needs a shared definition of "done" ✓
  3. OKRs don't have deadlines
  4. SMART is for personal goals only
10. What does the expanded SMART (8 elements) add to the classic five-letter checklist?
  1. It adds more letters for fun
  2. Actionable, Divided into progressive steps, Communicated, Assimilated, Measured, and Adjusted: maintenance tests for a goal that has to survive a real week ✓
  3. It replaces SMART entirely
  4. It removes the Time-bound element
11. How does Maxwell's Law of Navigation relate to SMART goal-setting?
  1. Navigation is a metaphor; SMART is unrelated
  2. "Anyone can steer; it takes a leader to chart the course." SMART is the act of charting in writing before the trip starts, so daily steering happens against a plan ✓
  3. Navigation is for ships; goals are for people
  4. SMART replaces navigation entirely
12. What is a BHAG and how does it work alongside SMART goals?
  1. A simpler form of SMART
  2. A 10-to-30-year goal so concrete and so large it galvanizes effort across years; SMART goals each year ladder toward it (Collins & Porras, Built to Last) ✓
  3. An acronym for Big Honest Annual Goal
  4. The opposite of a SMART goal