• May 11, 2016
• Comments Off on How to write goals that are measurable
• Lavery McGlynn

How to write goals that are measurable

PuMP creator, Stacey Barr, has just published a great article on making sure that your goals are clear and measurable. As it serves as a nice follow-on to my post on ensuring your Corporate Vision is easy to understand and measure, I thought I’d share it with you all!
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In PuMP we use a tool called the Measurability Tests to find out, and fix, the measurability of goals. If a goal fails the Measurability Tests, it simply cannot be meaningfully measured. But that’s rework. Wouldn’t it be better if we wrote our goals measurably, when we created them?

One of the guidelines I give people for writing goals that are measurable is to use words that a 5th-grader (10 year old) would understand.

It’s not about dumbing-down our goals. It’s about making sure they can be understood accurately. If instead they are written with management jargon, abstract concepts and weasel words, people will generally either not know what is meant or they will draw their own incorrect interpretation.

Goals are supposed to unite us and motivate us in the same direction. If we don’t understand them, or have our own different understandings, we certainly are not going to move in the same direction. That means wasted time and effort.

Which organisations can truly afford wasted time and effort? Which can justify it?

So let’s take the understandability and measurability of our goals much more seriously, and do the work to get them written right, from the start! Here are some options for you:

My favourite, SimpleWriter by xkcd.com
As simple as possible, but no simpler, is what SimpleWriter is. You type or copy in your text (in our case, it’s our strategic and business goals) and the app will highlight words that aren’t simple and clear enough. So you can write your goals from the start, with SimpleWriter coaching you. Or you can test your original goals and improve them.

If you’re a Mac user, try Morten Just’s Cleartext tool.
Cleartext will highlight any word you use that isn’t in the 1000 most commonly used English words. And your job then is to find a simpler and clearer way of saying what you mean by that word.

If you want a score, try the Flesch reading-ease test.
Rudolph Flesch created this formula for quantifying how easy a sentence or passage is to read. The higher the score, the easier it is to read. The highest score range is 90-100, and this correlates with what a 5th-grader would understand.

There are a range of online tools that can apply this test to your goals, some are free and some are not. I like this one by thewriter.com for it’s ease and the extra tips it offers about readability.

Dare you?
Yes, it will be very restrictive. Yes, you’ll probably use more words than you’re used to. Yes, you’ll feel challenged. Yes, people won’t feel comfortable having to explain what they really mean. And yes, you won’t master it right away. But your goals will be more understandable and measurable.

Stacey Barr is a specialist in organisational performance measurement and creator of PuMP, the refreshingly practical, step-by-step performance measurement methodology designed to overcome people’s biggest struggles with KPIs and measures. Learn about the bad habits that cause these struggles, and how to stop them, by taking Stacey’s free online course “The 10 Secrets to KPI Success” at www.staceybarr.com/the10secretstokpisuccess.