Are SMART Goals Outdated? We’re Using Them Wrong

SMART goals have been around for decades. And every now and then, the question comes up: Are they outdated?

The honest answer is: no, they’re not.

In fact, many of the goals organizations set today still follow the SMART criteria, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. That’s not the issue.

The real problem lies elsewhere.

It’s not about how you write goals.
It’s about how you set them, and how you work with them.

The Real Problem with Goal Setting

In many organizations, goal setting has quietly turned into a productivity tool:

• Do more
• Do it faster
• Try harder

But that’s not what good goals are supposed to do.

If your goals simply push people to increase output without changing how they work, you’re not creating progress, you’re creating pressure.

And pressure, over time, doesn’t lead to better outcomes. It leads to burnout, misalignment, and diminishing returns.

What Good Goals Actually Do

In our experience, effective goals look very different.

They are not just instructions, they are tools for focus and behavior change.

A good goal should:

1. Involve the People Doing the Work

Goals shouldn’t be handed down in isolation.

When individuals or teams are involved in setting their own goals, two things happen:

• Ownership increases
• Understanding deepens

People are far more committed to goals they helped shape.

2. Change Behavior, Not Just Output

A strong goal doesn’t say, “do more of the same.”

It challenges the way work gets done.

Instead of:

• “Increase sales calls by 20%”

Think:

• “Identify and focus on the highest-converting customer segments”

One drives activity.
The other drives thinking.

3. Encourage Smarter Work, Not Harder Work

Effort alone is not a strategy.

Good goals push teams to rethink priorities, processes, and approaches. They create space for better decisions—not just more action.

4. Create Focus

One of the biggest challenges in organizations today isn’t a lack of ideas, it’s a lack of focus.

If everything is a priority, nothing is.

Good goals force choices. They help teams concentrate their limited time, energy, and resources on what truly matters.

Where SMART Goals Go Wrong

The issue isn’t SMART goals themselves, it’s how they’re applied.

When goals are:

• Set top-down by leadership
• Distributed across hundreds or thousands of people
• Lacking context or involvement

They quickly lose their power.

They become checkboxes instead of drivers of alignment.

And at that point, it doesn’t matter how well-written they are.

The Takeaway

SMART goals aren’t outdated.
But they’re also not enough on their own.

Because great goal setting isn’t about syntax.
It’s about ownership, focus, and behavior change.

If your goals don’t change how people think and work,
they won’t change your outcomes either.

So instead of asking,
“Are we writing better goals?”

A better question might be:
“Are we setting goals in a way that actually drives impact?”

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