1.5 - About University

Action Plan: As you write your intent and goal statements, a hodgepodge of ideas for achievingyour goals will likely come rushing out at you. Don’t lose these thoughts. Note them underaction plans. Your notes should include key requirements for achieving the goal: sequencing,scheduling, steps, milestones, resources needed, who needs to be involved, assumptions, timedemands, and so on. Keep it simple; your focus here is on writing a clear goal statement. Youcan focus on writing clear action plans later.These acronyms have received wide publication, and may be helpful as you write your goalstatement. Goals should be:The ACORN model The SPIRO model The SMART modelA = accurateC = consistent with higher-levelobjectivesO = stated as outputsR = realisticN = numericS = specificP = payoff-orientedI = inspiringR = realisticO = observableS = specificM = measurableA = attainable and actionableR = realisticT = time-limitedH OW TO USE THIS LEADERSHIP TOOL“What is the use of running when you are on the wrong road?”—German proverbInherent in the goal-setting process is the notion of ends and means chains. That is, goals arehierarchical, with lower-level goals being the means to achieve higher-level goals. Take, forexample, the goal of bringing a new technological innovation into production. The immediategoal is market penetration. A higher-level goal is increasing market share. An even higherlevelgoal is increasing division revenues, and so on. Thus, the goal of “market penetration” isonly a means to the higher-level goal of “increasing market share,” and this in turn is only ameans to “increasing division revenues,” and so on.If it helps, think of your intent statement as being a higher-level goal, and of your goalstatement as being a lower-level goal. Now, from this perspective, write a couple of clear goalstatements. As you work, write the intent statement, or why it’s important to achieve this goal.In addition, as you write these statements, note even lower-level goals—action plans that willhelp you accomplish your goal.WEB WORKSHEETUse the workspace here to draft a couple of clear goal statements. As you work, make commentsin the intent (higher-level goal) and the action plan (lower-level goals) categories.Although you will make notes in all three categories or goal levels, make the focus of youreffort the writing of a couple of clear, measurable or observable goal statements. Clarifyingintent and writing action plans are usually easy once clear goal statements have been written.Goal #1IntentSECTION 2 TOOLS FOR BIG-PICTURE THINKING 63